Ka. Rodriguez-macias et al., Validation of in vivo noninvasive high-frequency ultrasonography of the arterial wall layers, ULTRASOUN M, 27(6), 2001, pp. 751-756
To validate estimates of the arterial wall thickness and its separate layer
s, 19 superficial (7 femoral and 12 cutaneous) arteries were transcutaneous
ly sonographed in 13 anaesthetized pigs with a high-resolution equipment fi
tted with a 25 MHz frequency probe. Means of ultrasonographic estimates of
each wall layer were compared with those obtained from microscopy of the re
spective arterial specimens taken after the pigs were sacrificed. For all v
essels combined, Spearman-rank correlation tests between ultrasonography an
d histology estimates were significant for total arterial wall thickness (r
(s) = 0.78; p =.0001) but not for the separate layers, For the cutaneous ar
teries, a significant correlation was found for total arterial wall thickne
ss (r(s)= 0.69; p =.01) and media layer (r(s) = 0.76; p = .004), The method
seems to give valid estimates of both total arterial wall and media thickn
ess in superficial arteries, but to be less accurate for estimate the adven
titia and intima Layers. (C) 2001 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medici
ne & Biology.