Development of an ultrasonic probe aimed at early diagnosis of arteriosclerosis

Abstract

In the early stage of arteriosclerosis, lesions appear on the vascular endothelial functions. It is important to evaluate these functions as early as possible because the lesions are still reversible. We have evaluated the viscoelastic properties of the blood vessel wall by measuring the arterial pressure and change in arterial diameter. In the present paper, we introduce the ultrasonic probe we recently developed to measure both the radial arterial pressure and the change in arterial diameter at the same position and the measured hysteresis property between the change in diameter and instantaneous pressure during a heartbeat.