On the ultimate x-ray detector for angiography

The purpose of our research is to describe the ultimate X-ray detector for angiography. Angiography is a well established X-ray imaging technique for the examination of blood vessels. Contrast agent is injected followed by X-ray exposures and possible obstructions in the blood vessels can be visualized. Standard angiography primarily inspects for possible occlusions and views the vessels as rigid pipes. However, due to the beating heart the flow in arteries is pulsatile. Healthy arteries are not rigid tubes but adapt to various pressure and flow conditions. Our interest is in the (small) response of the artery on the pulse flow. If the arteries responses elastically on the pulse flow, we can expect that it is still healthy. So the detection of artery diameter variations is of interest for the detection of atherosclerosis in an early stage. In this contribution we specify and test a model X-ray detector for its abilities to record the responses of arteries on pulsatile propagating flow distributions. Under normal physiological conditions vessels respond with a temporal increase in arterial internal cross-sectional area of order 10%. This pulse flow propagates along the arteries in response of the left ventricle ejections. We show results of the detection of simulated vessel distensabilities for the model detector and discuss salient parameters features.