Atherosclerosis and Atheroma Plaque Rupture: Imaging Modalities in the Visualization of Vasa Vasorum and Atherosclerotic Plaques
Figure 2
Vasa vasorum blood volume on contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging. Examples of maximum intensity projection images 2 s after the destructive pulse sequence are shown for femoral arteries 2 weeks after injection of either saline (a) or whole blood (b), illustrating a greater vasa vasorum (VV) density (arrows) in the latter. (c) Example of pixel intensity threshold analysis for the blood-injected vessel whereby pixels within the region of interest that enhance beyond threshold intensity are displayed in red-orange color scale and those that do not are displayed in blue. (d) Mean (± standard error of the mean) area of enhancement on pixel intensity threshold analysis, an index of functional VV blood density. Data for contralateral noninjected control vessels were similar between treatment cohorts and are grouped. * versus control contralateral artery; † versus both contralateral and saline-injected arteries (corrected for multiple comparisons). Reprint with permission from [41].
