Atherosclerotic Plaque Neovascular Inflation

描述(申请人提供)：血管是主要血管外壁上的微小动脉和静脉网络，穿透到血管壁内，为血管壁提供呼吸和营养。此外，这些血管穿透动脉壁，进入动脉粥样硬化斑块中的新生血管，为形成斑块的异常细胞提供营养和氧气。斑块内新生血管的血液在收缩时被挤出，在舒张期膨胀。我们正在开发一种可以通过颈部皮肤进行超声波检查的方法，以测量这些斑块的应变(变形)。通过测量新生血管充盈时的动脉压，可以确定血管内的压力；充盈体积等于新生血管体积。动脉粥样硬化性颈动脉斑块新生血管体积大，容易破裂，导致中风。在这个项目中开发的超声波测量将区分这种斑块和那些稳定的斑块。在这项研究中，我们将测量300名患者的斑块应变，以提供颈动脉狭窄患者的正常应变值和异常应变值的分布。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The vasa vasorum are a network of tiny arteries and veins on the outer wall of major blood vessels which penetrate into the wall to supply respiration and nutrition to the vascular wall. In addition, these vessels penetrate through the arterial wall and into neovessels in the atherosclerotic plaques to provide nutrients and oxygen to the abnormal cells forming the plaque. The blood in the intraplaque neovessels is squeezed out in systole and inflates the neovessels in diastole. We are developing an ultrasound examination method that can be performed through the skin of the neck to measure the strain (deformation) of these plaques. By determining the arterial pressure when the neovessels inflate, the pressure in the vasa vasorum can be determined; the inflation volume is equal to the neovascular volume. Atherosclerotic carotid artery plaques which have a large neovascular volume are vulnerable to rupture, causing a stroke. The ultrasonic measurement developed in this project will differentiate such plaques from those that are stable. In this study we will measure the plaque strain in 300 patients to provide a distribution of normal and abnormal strain values in the people who have stenotic atherosclerotic carotid artery plaques.