Wall Shear Stress of Swine Model with Induced Carotid Artery Stenosis

S. AHN, A. ISHII, D. SHIN, F. VINUELA, S. SINHA Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Radiological Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States OBJECTIVES Low and/or oscillatory shearing stress at a vessel wall is regarded as a risk factor of the evolution of atherosclerotic plaques . In vivo hemodynamic study concurrent with temporally-resolved histo-pathological investigation has inherent difficulties especially, at the stage of formation and development of atherosclerotic lesions. In this study to estimate wall shear stress for comparison with histological results, stenosis at swine carotid artery was artificially induced by surgical partial ligation. Advanced atherosclerotic plaques were developed in a proximal portion to the stenosis. Concurrently, high-resolution MR phase contrast (PC) was performed to estimate the temporal and spatial distribution of wall shear stress within small and deeply positioned swine carotid vessel. Doppler velocimetry was used to measure and compare blood flow with MR measurement.