Ultrasonic measurement of 3D geometry of the chick extraembryonic arterial bifurcation during a cardiac cycle

Abstract

The features of arterial bifurcation geometry significantly affect the local changes in wall shear stress distribution that is closely related to the formation and development of atherosclerotic plaque. However, examining arterial bifurcation geometry caused by pulsatile blood flow is limited due to the difficulties in select suitable in vivo experimental mode land methodology. The present study aims to establish a novel method on the investigation of pulsatile cyclic variation of three-dimensional arterial bifurcation geometry using the chick embryo model. A high-frequency ultrasound imaging system with a 35-MHz mechanical sector probe was used to obtain radial cross-sectional B-mode images of the chick chorioallantoic membrane arterial bifurcation. By detecting the arterial wall motion, the pulsatile cycle was observed. Then the three-dimensional arterial bifurcation geometry was reconstructed by manually segmented two-dimensional boundary data sets. Finally, the expansion ratio of the cross-section area, bifurcation angle, tortuosity, displacement of center point at the systolic and diastolic phases were measured. The result shows that the arterial wall has asymmetrical expansion and contraction during a cardiac cycle. In addition, the translational motion of the artery was founded in the chick embryo model. The high-frequency ultrasound imaging of chick extraembryonic artery model is suggested to be useful in studying of arterial pathophysiology related to arterial bifurcation geometry.