Assessment of normal and atherosclerotic arterial wall thickness with an intravascular ultrasound imaging catheter.

摘要: A prototype intravascular ultrasound imaging catheter with a 20 MHz transducer was used to obtain 59 cross-sectional images in 14 segments of human atherosclerotic arteries. Three distinct components the arterial wall were visualized on images: highly reflective intima, an echolucent media, and moderately adventitia. Images obtained at 1 mm increments vitro compared histologic sections same levels. Measurements layers showed close correlation between for thickness intimal plaque (r = 0.91), media 0.83), total 0.85). The overestimated mean by 0.3 0.7 measurements (p less than 0.001). Intravascular high-frequency is accurate method measuring microanatomic dimensions extent atheromatous involvement wall. This could represent important adjunct traditional angiographic techniques assessing severity atherosclerosis.