Mechanical analysis of arterial plaques in native geometry with OCT wall motion analysis.

The mechanical behavior of an atherosclerotic plaque may encode information about the type, composition, and vulnerability to rupture. Human arterial segments with varying plaque burden were analyzed ex vivo with optical coherence tomography (OCT) to determine plaque type and to determine compliance during pulsatile inflation in their native geometry. Calcifications and lipid filled plaques showed markedly different compliance when analyzed with OCT wall motion analysis. There was also a trend towards increased circumferential variation in arterial compliance with increasing plaque burden.