The endothelial dysfunction is considered to be an initial step of atherosclerosis. Additionally, it was reported that the smooth muscle, which constructs the media of the artery, changes its characteristics owing to atherosclerosis. Therefore, it is essential to develop a method for assessing the regional endothelial function and mechanical property of the arterial wall. There is a conventional technique of measuring the transient change in the diameter of the brachial artery caused by flow-mediated dilation (FMD) after the release of avascularization. For more sensitive and regional evaluation, we developed a method of measuring the change in the elasticity of the radial artery due to FMD. In this study, the transient change in the mechanical property of the arterial wall was further revealed by measuring the stress-strain relationship during each heartbeat. The minute change in the thickness (strain) of the radial arterial wall during a cardiac cycle was measured by the phased tracking method, together with the waveform of blood pressure which was continuously measured with a sphygmometer at the radial artery. The transient change in stress-strain relationship during a cardiac cycle was obtained from the measured changes in wall thickness and blood pressure to show the transient change in instantaneous viscoelasticity. From the in vivo experimental results, the stress-strain relationship shows the hysteresis loop. The slope of the loop decreased owing to FMD, which shows that the elastic modulus decreased, and the increasing area of the loop depends on the ratio of the loss modulus (depends on viscosity) to the elastic modulus when the Voigt model is assumed. These results show a potential of the proposed method for the thorough analysis of the transient change in viscoelasticity due to FMD.

The endothelial dysfunction is considered to be an initial step in atherosclerosis. Additionally, it was reported that the smooth muscle, which constructs the media of the artery, changes its characteristics owing to atherosclerosis. Therefore, it is essential to develop a method of assessing the regional endothelial function and mechanical properties of the arterial wall. To evaluate the endothelial function, a conventional technique of measuring the transient change in the diameter of the brachial artery caused by flow-mediated dilation (FMD) after the release of avascularization is used. However, this method can not evaluate the mechanical properties of the wall. We previously developed a method for the simultaneous measurements of waveforms of radial strain and blood pressure in the radial artery. In this study, the viscoelasticity of the arterial wall was estimated from the measured stress-strain relationship using the least-squares method and the transient changes in the mechanical properties of the arterial wall ware revealed. From in vivo experimental results, the stress-strain relationship showed a hysteresis loop and viscoelasticity was estimated by the proposed method. The slope of the loop decreased owing to FMD, which resulted in the decrease in estimated elastic modulus. The increase in the area of the loop occurred after recirculation, which corresponds to the increase in the ratio of the loss modulus (depends on viscosity) to the elastic modulus when the Voigt model is assumed. In this study, the variance in estimates was evaluated by in vivo measurement for 10 min. The temporal decrease in static elasticity after recirculation due to FMD was much larger than the evaluated variance. These results show a potential of the proposed method for the thorough analysis of the transient change in viscoelasticity due to FMD.

We measured the stress–strain relationship of the radial arterial wall during a heartbeat noninvasively. In our previous study, the viscoelasticity of the intima–media region was estimated from the stress–strain relationship, and the transient change in viscoelasticity due to flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was estimated. In this estimation, it is necessary to detect the lumen–intima boundary (LIB) and the media–adventitia boundary (MAB). To decrease the operator dependence, in the present study, a method is proposed for automatic and objective boundary detection based on template matching between the measured and adaptive model ultrasonic signals. Using this method, arterial wall boundaries were appropriately detected in in vivo experiments. Furthermore, the transient change in viscoelasticity estimated from the stress–strain relationship was similar to that obtained manually. These results show the feasibility of the proposed method for automatic boundary detection enabling an objective and appropriate analysis of the transient change in viscoelasticity due to FMD.

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