Progressive Attenuation of the Longitudinal Kinetics in the Common Carotid Artery: Preliminary in Vivo Assessment

Longitudinal kinetics (LOKI) of the arterial wall consists of the shearing motion of the intima-media complex over the adventitia layer in the direction parallel to the blood flow during the cardiac cycle. The aim of this study was to investigate the local variability of LOKI amplitude along the length of the vessel. By use of a previously validated motion-estimation framework, 35 in vivo longitudinal B-mode ultrasound cine loops of healthy common carotid arteries were analyzed. Results indicated that LOKI amplitude is progressively attenuated along the length of the artery, as it is larger in regions located on the proximal side of the image (i.e., toward the heart) and smaller in regions located on the distal side of the image (i.e., toward the head), with an average attenuation coefficient of −2.5 ± 2.0%/mm. Reported for the first time in this study, this phenomenon is likely to be of great importance in improving understanding of atherosclerosis mechanisms, and has the potential to be a novel index of arterial stiffness.