Venous Elastography: Validation of a Novel High‐Resolution Ultrasound Method for Measuring Vein Compliance Using Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

Ultrasonography for the noninvasive assessment of tissue properties has enjoyed widespread success. With the growing emphasis in recent years on arteriovenous fistulae (AVFs) for dialysis vascular access in patients with end-stage renal disease, and on reducing AVF failures, there is increasing interest in ultrasound for the preoperative evaluation of the mechanical and elastic properties of arteries and veins. This study used high-resolution ultrasound with phase-sensitive speckle tracking to obtain in-vivo vein elasticity measurements during dilation. The results of this novel ultrasound technique were then compared to a computer model of venous strain. The computer model and ultrasound analysis of the vessel wall demonstrated internally consistent positive and negative longitudinal strain values as the vein wall underwent dilation. These results support further investigation of the use of phase-sensitive speckle tracking for ultrasound venous mapping for preoperative vascular access evaluation.

Diameter and compliance of the greater saphenous vein - effect of age and nitroglycerine

“…In the young group, the diameter did not increase after NTG administration. New ultrasound methods concerning mechanical and elastic properties of vessels are continuously developing (Garra, 2007), and ultrasonography for noninvasive assessment of tissue properties is also of other significant clinical interest such as preoperative evaluation of dialysis vascular access (Biswas et al, 2010). The diameter at rest was lower in the elderly (P<0AE05).…”

“…GSV is the superficial vein most commonly used as a graft in cardiovascular bypass surgery, and ultrasound is the method of choice to assess diameter in the preoperative investigation (Mofidi et al, 2009). New ultrasound methods concerning mechanical and elastic properties of vessels are continuously developing (Garra, 2007), and ultrasonography for noninvasive assessment of tissue properties is also of other significant clinical interest such as preoperative evaluation of dialysis vascular access (Biswas et al, 2010).…”

Stability in the linearized problem of quantitative elastography

“…Proof. For checking the Lopatinskii (or covering) condition in Definition 2, we have to consider the vector space of functions satisfying the system (15) and show that it is trivial. Let L = L p with principal symbol (49), and let y be a point on the boundary.…”

“…Now let L = L µ with principal symbol (51). Then, for y on the boundary, consider the system L 0 (y, ıζ + ν d dz )ũ(z) = 0 in (15). Similarly to (55), the last three components vanish, and the system reduces to…”

“…Elastography is a medical imaging technology; its current applications range from detection of cancer in the breast and in the prostate, liver cirrhosis and characterization of artherosclerotic plaque in hardened coronary vessels [19,42,54,4,53,56,15].…”