Shear Wave Elastography Quantifies Stiffness in Ex Vivo Porcine Artery with Stiffened Arterial Region

Erik Widman; Elira Maksuti; Carolina Amador; Matthew W Urban; Kenneth Caidahl; Matilda Larsson

doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2016.05.021

Shear Wave Elastography Quantifies Stiffness in Ex Vivo Porcine Artery with Stiffened Arterial Region

Ultrasound Med Biol. 2016 Oct;42(10):2423-35. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2016.05.021. Epub 2016 Jul 15.

Authors

Erik Widman¹, Elira Maksuti², Carolina Amador³, Matthew W Urban⁴, Kenneth Caidahl⁵, Matilda Larsson²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Engineering, School of Technology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden. Electronic address: erik.widman@sth.kth.se.
² Department of Medical Engineering, School of Technology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden.
³ Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
⁴ Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA; Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
⁵ Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden.

PMID: 27425151
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2016.05.021

Abstract

Five small porcine aortas were used as a human carotid artery model, and their stiffness was estimated using shear wave elastography (SWE) in the arterial wall and a stiffened artery region mimicking a stiff plaque. To optimize the SWE settings, shear wave bandwidth was measured with respect to acoustic radiation force push length and number of compounded angles used for motion detection with plane wave imaging. The mean arterial wall and simulated plaque shear moduli varied from 41 ± 5 to 97 ± 10 kPa and from 86 ± 13 to 174 ± 35 kPa, respectively, over the pressure range 20-120 mmHg. The results revealed that a minimum bandwidth of approximately 1500 Hz is necessary for consistent shear modulus estimates, and a high pulse repetition frequency using no image compounding is more important than a lower pulse repetition frequency with better image quality when estimating arterial wall and plaque stiffness using SWE.

Keywords: Arteriosclerosis; Artery; Atherosclerosis; Elasticity; Ex vivo; Phase velocity; Plaque; Shear wave elastography; Ultrasound.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Aorta / diagnostic imaging*
Aorta / physiopathology*
Elastic Modulus / physiology
Elasticity Imaging Techniques / methods*
Female
Male
Models, Animal
Shear Strength / physiology
Stress, Mechanical
Swine