Ultrasound-based estimation of arterial wall elasticity is commonly used to assess arterial stiffness. However, previous elastography studies have mostly addressed radial strain measurements, and the longitudinal strain has been more or less ignored. This study shows the feasibility of a speckle-tracking-based algorithm for simultaneous estimation of radial and longitudinal strain in the carotid artery in silico. Additionally, these results were preliminarily confirmed in vivo.

No abstract

hooge, J., Larsson, M. (2015) Ultrasound speckle tracking strain estimation of in vivo carotid artery plaque with in vitro sonomicrometry validation. in CCA gel-phantoms with a plaque mimicking inclusion using an in-house ST algorithm and 3 sonomicrometry. Moreover, plaque strain by ST from 7 patients (77 ± 6 years) with carotid 4 atherosclerosis was compared with a quantitative visual assessment by two experienced physicians. 5 Ultrasound in Medicine andIn vitro, good correlation existed between ST and sonomicrometry peak strain both radially (r = 6 0.96, p < 0.001) and longitudinally (r = 0.75, p < 0.01). In vivo, a greater pulse-pressure adjusted 7 radial and longitudinal strain was found in echolucent plaques compared to echogenic plaques. This 8 study shows the feasibility of ultrasound ST strain estimation in plaques and indicates the 9 possibility to characterize plaques using ST strain in vivo. 10 11

No abstract

PI3K-α, -δ, and -γ all participate in inflammation induction. Antagonism of only PI3K-γ blocks nociception, which is indicative of a role for this isoform within the afferent.