6G-5 ARFI Ultrasound for Characterizing Atherosclerosis

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States, with coronary artery disease and stroke alone accounting for 70% of CVD mortalities. Given this tremendous human impact, imaging technologies that enhance CVD outcomes by enabling earlier disease detection, monitoring the effects of therapeutic interventions, and delineating disease progression or regression are in critical need. We hypothesize that Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) ultrasound is efficacious for noninvasive characterization of atherosclerotic plaque and arterial walls in CVD assessment. To test this hypothesis, we performed ARFI imaging in three iliac arteries: 1) an excised familial hypercholesterolemic (FH) pig iliac with a raised focal atherosclerotic plaque, 2) an in vivo FH pig iliac with diffuse atherosclerosis, and 3) an in vivo control pig iliac with no known disease. In all three cases, our ARFI results were compared to matched immunohistochemistry, which showed a spatial correlation between collagen and elastin content and tissue mechanical property. This work supports the merit of additional investigations into ARFI imaging as a noninvasive, in vivo imaging technology for characterizing atherosclerotic plaque and arteries