In vitro performance of echoPIV for assessment of laminar flow profiles in a carotid artery stent

Abstract

. Purpose : Detailed blood flow studies may contribute to improvements in carotid artery stenting. High-frame-rate contrast-enhanced ultrasound followed by particle image velocimetry (PIV), also called echoPIV, is a technique to study blood flow patterns in detail. The performance of echoPIV in presence of a stent has not yet been studied extensively. We compared the performance of echoPIV in stented and nonstented regions in an in vitro flow setup. Approach : A carotid artery stent was deployed in a vessel-mimicking phantom. High-frame-rate contrast-enhanced ultrasound images were acquired with various settings. Signal intensities of the contrast agent, velocity values, and flow profiles were calculated. Results : The results showed decreased signal intensities and correlation coefficients inside the stent, however, PIV analysis in the stent still resulted in plausible flow vectors. Conclusions : Velocity values and laminar flow profiles can be measured in vitro in stented arteries using echoPIV.

Blood Flow Quantification with High-Frame-Rate, Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Velocimetry in Stented Aortoiliac Arteries: In Vivo Feasibility

“…In a previous in vitro study on the performance of echoPIV in a stented carotid artery phantom, decreased image contrast was found in the stented region, as opposed to our study (Hoving et al 2021). However, this did not have a negative effect on the velocity estimation.…”

Experimental Validation of a Novel Solid-Liquid Swirling Flow Reactor for Dense Suspensions

“…It acquires images using an ultrasound transducer and yields velocity fields from these images with similar processing algorithms to PIV. The most common field of application is the medical field, where optical access to arteries is not feasible, and ultrasound imaging devices are commonly used instead [21,22]. The Signalto-Noise-Ratio (SNR) and resolution are relatively low for UIV compared to PIV, and the resolution differs between the parallel and perpendicular direction to the transducer [17].…”