Abstract
To evaluate the progressive changes in the viscoelastic properties of the arterial system in such an animal model of the experimental atherosclerosis as produced by feeding cholesterol-rich food to rabbits, we developed a nontraumatic technique to measure the in-vivo pressure-volume relationship in the forearm arterial tree with the photoelectric plethysmography, employing the explicit relationship between the infrared light absorption through the tissue and blood volume contained in it as the principle. The system designed for this purpose was consisted of a light source, a photodetector, a compressing cuff driven by a micro-roller pump and the amplifirers for the phototransistor output and for the cuff compression pressure. The light source and detector tips were directly fixed on the rabbit forearm skin in the mutually opposing positions and the compression cuff was placed around the forearm so as to cover the tips at the middle portion. As the compression pressure of the cuff was gradually increased, the transmural pressure of the vessels under the cuff was reduced and the associated decrease in blood volume according to the overall vascular compliance was detected by the change in the transmitted light intensity proportional to the transistor output. The relative pressure-volume relationship normalized with the unstressed vascular volume was obtained for the arterial system, as well as the volume elastic modulus Ev for various as well as the volume elastic modulus Ev for various level of the transmural pressure.The measurement of the pressure-volume relationship was repeated for each cholesterol loaded rabbit every two weeks. The results showed a distinct tendency of sclerotic changes of the arterial system ever decreasing the elasticity during the period of 6 months followed up. A similar but much faster change in the vascular elastic modulus was observed in the model of atherosclerosis experimentally induced by X-ray irradiation of the rabbit forearm.
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