Ex Vivo Study Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging to Identify Biomarkers of Atherosclerotic Disease in Human Cadaveric Carotid Arteries.
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol
; 42(11): 1398-1412, 2022 11.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36172867
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
This study aims to address the potential of ex vivo diffusion tensor imaging to provide insight into the microstructural composition and morphological arrangement of aged human atherosclerotic carotid arteries.METHODS:
In this study, whole human carotid arteries were investigated both anatomically and by comparing healthy and diseased regions. Nonrigid image registration was used with unsupervised segmentation to investigate the influence of elastin, collagen, cell density, glycosaminoglycans, and calcium on diffusion tensor imaging derived metrics (fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity). Early stage atherosclerotic features were also investigated in terms of microstructural components and diffusion tensor imaging metrics.RESULTS:
All vessels displayed a dramatic decrease in fractional anisotropy compared with healthy animal arterial tissue, while the mean diffusivity was sensitive to regions of advanced disease. Elastin content strongly correlated with both fractional anisotropy (r>0.7, P<0.001) and mean diffusivity (r>-0.79, P<0.0002), and the thickened intima was also distinguishable from arterial media by these metrics.CONCLUSIONS:
These different investigations point to the potential of diffusion tensor imaging to identify characteristics of arterial disease progression, at early and late-stage lesion development.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Elastin
/
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Aged
/
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol
Journal subject:
ANGIOLOGIA
Year:
2022
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ireland