C M Zeindler | PubMed Health

PubMed1989

Quantitative measurements of early atherosclerotic lesions on rabbit aortae from vascular casts.

We have measured the size and location of fatty atherosclerotic lesions in the cholesterol fed rabbit by scanning electron microscopic analysis of vascular casts. The aortic periorificial lesions examined in this study have been divided into proximal (upstream), distal (downstream) and lateral (to the sides of the branch). Lateral lesions developed after 1 week on diet, followed by distal lesions at 2 weeks, and occasional proximal lesions at 4 weeks. The area covered by the lesions shows a strong linear relationship (P less than 0.001) to the cross-sectional area of the branch after 2 weeks on the cholesterol diet.

Acrylic Resins↗

PubMed1989

Quantitative measurement from vascular casts.

A review of quantitative measurements show casting materials shrink from 0.2 - 20% and have viscosities ranging from 1.4 - 100,000 centipoise. Blood vessels have highly variable mechanical properties. Some microvessels are very stiff having little change in dimensions with pressure. Larger vessels generally change diameter significantly but show highly variable changes in length with pressure. Perfusion fixation does not fix the dimensions of blood vessels. Dog carotid arteries well fixed with glutaraldehyde at physiologic dimensions retain approximately 20% of their elastic recoil circumferentially and approximately 30% longitudinally. We recommend vascular casting as a method of accurately measuring the vasculature if care is taken to use low shrinkage casting resins and maintain physiologic transmural pressures for the duration of any casting procedure, even if prefixation is used. We measured a approximately 10% error in our method of measuring both the size and location of periorificial atherosclerotic lesions from aortic casts. Little is known about how vascular smooth muscle tone changes during casting.

Animals↗