Carotid atherosclerotic plaque characterisation by measurement of ultrasound sound speed in vitro at high frequency, 20MHz

Characterization of Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaques by Measurement of Acoustic Impedance

“…Acoustic microscopy in sound speed mode demonstrated different speed of sound values due to variation of elasticity within the atherosclerotic coronary arteries [18,19]. Similarly, carotid atherosclerotic plaques were characterized by measurement of sound speed ex vivo and different plaque components were observed to have different values of sound speed [20].…”

Characterisation of Elastic and Acoustic Properties of an Agar-Based Tissue Mimicking Material

“…Batches of TMM of approximately 0.5 litres were prepared by adding granulated, purified agar (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) to deionised water in the ratio 3:97 by weight. Rodalon™ (Benzalkonium Chloride, an antibacterial, antifungal agent) was also added to the mixture to suppress bacterial and fungal proliferation 6 . The mixture was stirred with a rotating coil and surface stirrer at 175 rpm and heated by a thermo-regulator (TE-10D, Techne, Stone, UK) in an insulated water bath for an hour at 96 °C.…”

“…Our laboratory has much experience in the manufacture of tissue mimicking agarose gels as a tissue mimic 5,6,30 . We chose here to characterise a simplified 3% agarose gel because it is cheap and easy both to manufacture and mould.…”

Designating Vulnerability of Atherosclerotic Plaques

“…Major advantages of SAM over other imaging techniques are no requirement of special staining and capture of an image of an area of around 5 mm x 5 mm in a couple of minutes. The speed of sound (SOS) through tissues [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] or acoustic impedance of samples [36,37] can be calculated by SAM, and two-dimensional distributions are mapped. Similarly, cells and organelles can be resolved by acoustic microscopy using higher frequencies of 100-1200 MHz [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45].…”