Improved determination of vascular blood-flow shear rate using Do

摘要

Abstract: Shear rate has been linked to endothelial and smooth muscle cell function, neointimal hyperplasia, poststenotic dilation and progression of atherosclerotic plaque. In vivo studies of shear rate have been limited in humans due to the lack of a truly accurate noninvasive method of measuring blood flow. In clinical vascular laboratories, the primary method of wall shear rate estimation is the scaled ratio between the center line systolic velocity and the local arterial radius. The present study compares this method with the shear rate calculated directly from data collected using a Doppler ultrasound scanner. Blood flow in the superficial femoral artery of 20 subjects was measured during three stages of distal resistance. Analysis and display programs were written for use with the MATLAB image processing software package. The experimental values of shear rate were calculated using the formal definition and then compared to the standard estimate. In all three states of distal resistance, the experimental values were significantly higher than the estimated values by a factor of approximately 1.57. These results led to the conclusion that the direct method of measuring shear rate is more precise and should replace the estimation model in the clinical laboratory. !21