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Feasibility Study of High-Frequency Ultrasonic Blood Imaging in Human Radial Artery

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Abstract

The present study investigates cyclic variation in blood echogenicity (CVBE) in vivo using high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS). Blood echogenicity (BE) and vessel diameter (VD) were obtained from cross-sectional B-mode images of the radial artery of six volunteers (three young and three old volunteers) acquired at a frequency of 20 MHz. The magnitudes of the cyclic variations in BE and VD were 0.83 ± 0.18 dB and 0.29 ± 0.05 mm, respectively. CVBE was observed to be out of phase with the cyclic variation in VD, which is known to be in phase with blood flow velocity. This result is different from those in previous studies, which were performed in the carotid artery at lower frequencies. In addition, the magnitude of CVBE in the older group (0.96 ± 0.05 dB) was higher than that in the younger group (0.63 ± 0.06 dB, p < 0.005), whereas the magnitude of variation in VD was not significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.119). This feasibility study suggests that HFUS B-mode blood imaging of human small vessels is useful for the noninvasive measurement or monitoring of the dynamic variation of hemorheological properties in human blood.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korean government (MEST) (No. 2012-0005005) and The Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE), Korea, under the Convergence Information Technology Research Center (CITRC) support program (NIPA-2013-H0401-13-1007) supervised by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, M5B2K3, Canada

    Tae-Hoon Bok

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Ying Li

  3. Department of Ocean System Engineering, Jeju National University, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Jeju, 690-756, Republic of Korea

    Kweon-Ho Nam & Dong-Guk Paeng

  4. Department of Neurology, Jeju National University Hospital, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Jeju, 690-767, Republic of Korea

    Jay Chol Choi

  5. Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Biomedical Engineering, Jeju National University, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Jeju, 690-756, Republic of Korea

    Jay Chol Choi & Dong-Guk Paeng

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  1. Tae-Hoon Bok
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  2. Ying Li
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Correspondence to Dong-Guk Paeng.

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Bok, TH., Li, Y., Nam, KH. et al. Feasibility Study of High-Frequency Ultrasonic Blood Imaging in Human Radial Artery. J. Med. Biol. Eng. 35, 21–27 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-015-0001-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-015-0001-3

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