The development and progression of atherosclerosis and thrombosis are closely related to changes of hemodynamics parameters. Ultrasonic pulse wave Doppler technique is normally used for noninvasively blood flow imaging. However, this technique only provides one-dimensional velocity and depends on the angle between the ultrasound beam and the local velocity vector. In this study, ultrasonic particle image velocimetry method was used to assess whole field hemodynamic changes in normal blood vessels. By using the polynomial fitting method, we investigated the velocity gradient and assessed the shear in different blood flow velocity of 10 healthy rats. It was found that using four polynomial fitting could result in optimal measurement results. The results obtained by ultrasonic particle image velocimetry accorded with the results obtained using Doppler technique. The statistical average of cyclical vessel wall shear stress was positively related to the locational mean velocity. It is proven that ultrasonic particle image velocimetry method could be used to assess directly the real-time whole field hemodynamic changes in blood vessels and was non-invasively, and should be a good prosperous technique for monitoring complex blood flow in stenotic arteries.
Objective To evaluate changes of local flow field following implantation of a designed iliac venous stent. Methods Anin vitro physical model with iliocava junction was established. A modified iliac venous stent was implanted into one side and a conventional stent into the other side. The bilateral local flow fileds following implantation of stents were measured by using particle image velocimetry. Results The results of particle image velocimetry testing revealed that the main flow orientation was shifted to the right side and the region of slowly local flow was observed after implantation of conventional iliac venous stent. However, no evident changes were noted in the local flow field and no whirling flow was detected following implantation of the designed iliac venous stent. Conclusion Conventional stent is implanted into iliac vein by using a traditional technique and stent is proximal to heart and covers opening of contralateral iliac vein, which exerts certain influence upon local flow field. Local flow field has no obvious change following implantation of a designed iliac venous stent.
At present, there are few in vivo experimental studies on anterior chamber flow field, and the relevant technologies are not mature. This study explores the experimental method and key techniques of particle image velocimetry (PIV) for the in vivo measurement of anterior chamber flow field with slow flow velocity in the rabbit with acute intraocular hypertension. The experimental process can be divided into three parts: model construction of rabbit eye with acute intraocular hypertension, in vivo eyeball preparation, and PIV setup. The following key techniques were mainly investigated: the optimal injection strategy of fluorescent particles and the correction strategy for image acquisition errors caused by the effects of image refraction and respiration. The results showed that the best injection method was that 15 μL of fluorescent particles solution was slowly injected into the anterior chamber through the lower part of iris and then the rabbit was released and waited for 13 h. In this way particles were completely distributed in the anterior chamber with the help of the aqueous humor circulation, and then in vivo PIV experiment could be performed. The eyeball should be covered with a square flume filled with ultrasonic coupling gel for the sake of imaging during the experiment. The Maximal Information Coefficient algorithm could be applied to correct the measured results before post-processing calculation. The results indicated that feasible injection strategy of fluorescent particles and the correction strategy for image acquisition are critical to obtain nice experiment effects for the in vivo PIV measurement of anterior chamber flow field in the rabbit with acute intraocular hypertension.