Anatomical and Functional Estimations of Brachial Artery Diameter and Elasticity Using Oscillometric Measurements with a Quantitative Approach

摘要

Noninvasive vascular function measurement plays an important role in detecting early stages of atherosclerosis and in evaluating therapeutic responses. In this regard, recently, new vascular function measurements have been developed. These new measurements have been used to evaluate vascular function in coronary arteries, large aortic arteries, or peripheral arteries. Increasing vascular diameter represents vascular remodeling related to atherosclerosis. Attenuated vascular elasticity may be a reliable marker for atherosclerotic risk assessment. However, previous measurements for vascular diameter and vascular elasticity have been complex, operator-dependent, or invasive. Therefore, simple and reliable approaches have been sought. We recently developed a new automated oscillometric method to measure the estimated area (eA) of a brachial artery and its volume elastic modulus (V_E).