Correlation between parameters of contrast-enhanced ultrasound and microvessel density in rabbit atherosclerotic plaques / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the correlation between quantitative parameters of contrastenhanced ultrasound(CEUS) and microvessel density (MVD) of rabbit atherosclerotic plaques.Methods Twenty-six male New Zealand rabbits were damaged abdominal aortic by balloon expanded,fed with high fat 12 weeks later.Thirty two plaques were detected using conventional ultrasound examination.The maximum area,luminal area stenosis rate and the maximum thickness of each plaque were recorded.CEUS was performed on 32 plaques and enhancement images were offline analyzed quantitatively by ACQ software and the parameters such as arrival time(AT),time to peak(TTP),basic intensity(BI),and peak intensity(PI) were acquired.Enhanced intensity (EI) was calculated according to the formula:EI =PI- BI.Then the experimentalrabbitswerekilledforpathologicalexaminationandCD34monoclonalantibody immunohistochemical detection.MVD was counted under the microscope.The correlation between the parameters of CEUS and MVD was analyzed.Based on pathological findings,the plaques were divided into vulnerable plaques and stable plaques.ResultsEI and MVD of vulnerable plaques group were significantly higher than that of stable plaques group [EI:(26.36 ± 1.44) dB vs (23.90 ± 2.92)dB,t =- 3.243,P =0.001 ；MVD:(5.23 ± 1.16)/mm2 vs (2.47 ± 1.12)/mm2,Z =- 4.378,P ＜0.001].The maximum area,luminal area stenosis rate,the maximum thickness and PI,AT,TTP had no significant difference between two groups( P ＞0.05).The value of EI showed significant positive correlation with MVD ( r =0.676,P ＜0.001).ConclusionsEI can accurately evaluate the angiogenesis of rabbit atherosclerotic plaques,which can be regarded as a useful index to distinguish between vulnerable and stable plaques.