Modeling human arterial wall motion with in vivo validation using high frequency ultrasound

Arterial stiffness has been shown to be a predictor of cardiovascular events and pulse wave velocity, a measure of arterial stiffness, has been shown to be correlated with clinical outcomes. The ability to measure changes in the mechanical properties of an arterial vessel wall may therefore enable detection of early manifestations of cardiovascular disease. In this study, high frequency (30MHz) ultrasound was used to scan human common carotid arteries, in order to determine arterial wall motion as a measure of arterial stiffness. A 2D RF speckle tracking algorithm was used to calculate wall motion and a mathematical model, based on a viscoelastic tube was developed to model radial direction motion. No significant difference in radial motion was observed between the intima and adventitia of the imaged vessel wall. Simulations using the model accurately predicted arterial radial motion as determined by speckle tracking - exhibiting less than a 5% mean error over 2 cardiac cycles.