Young's Modulus Evaluation of the Walls of Cerebral Arteries with Aneurysms

A method for in vivo evaluation the value of the modulus of longitudinal elasticity (Young's modulus) for the large blood vessel walls was described. Digital processing of a sequence of optical coherence tomography (OCT) structural images of the investigated blood vessels' walls is the key feature of the described method. The pulse wave is used as a physiological and therefore relatively safe deforming impact. The absolute displacement of the blood vessel wall structures is calculated from the shift of peaks in the averaged A-scan interferograms. The size of the deformable region in the structural OCT images and the deforming area are considered to be equal to the coherence probing depth and the scanning area of the intravascular probe, respectively. The described method is to be used for choosing the optimal flow-diverter for correct treatment of cerebral arteries with aneurysms.