Arterial Wall Essay

The CIMT measurement directly correlated with pathology, and is indicative of the thickness of the arterial wall, precisely imaged using ultrasound technology. The anatomy of the arterial wall is illustrated in figure 4. The arterial wall contains three distinct separate layers intima, media and adventitia (figure 4). Atherosclerosis as described previously, affects the intima leading to intimal thickening, but here is no method available at present which can measure only intima thickness in vivo. However, intima-media thickness may be measured with ultrasound and an increase in intima-media thickness in atherosclerotic prone areas is used as an indicator of intimal thickening. The CIMT is defined as the distance from the lumen-intima interface …show more content…
presenting an ultrasound image with the largest (true) diameter; and thus a guarantee that the far wall intima–media thickness will be correctly measured (90_ angle between ultrasound array and arterial wall). A poorly visualized near wall may indicate a non-optimal imaging view. Furthermore the leading edge of the near wall intima–lumen interface is used when measuring lumen diameter (see below and Fig. 4). The leading edge echo from the lumen–intima interface and from the media–adventitia interface of the far wall can be recorded for the common carotid artery and carotid artery bulb in the majority of cases, thus enabling valid measurements of far wall intima–media thickness (Fig. 4; distance between echoes marked 4 and 5 in Fig. 4). However, present experience from several groups indicates that it is difficult to achieve reliable high quality measurements of intima–media thickness of the internal carotid artery in prospective studies. This is probably due to anatomical reasons, it is hard getting the ultrasound transducer in a good recording position for the curved internal carotid artery located deeply high up on the neck below the cheek (especially so in overweight