Vascular elasticity measurement of the great saphenous vein based on optical coherence elastography

Vascular elasticity is important in physiological and clinical problems. The mechanical properties of the great saphenous vein (GSV) deserve attention. This research aims to measure the radial elasticity of ex vivo GSV using the optical coherence elasticity (OCE). The finite element model of the phantom is established, the displacement field is calculated, the radial mechanical characteristics of the simulation body are obtained. Furthermore, we performed OCE on seven isolated GSVs. The strain field is obtained by combining the relationship between strain and displacement to obtain the radial elastic modulus of GSVs. In the phantom experiment, the strain of the experimental region of interest is mainly between 0.1 and 0.4, while the simulation result is between 0.06 and 0.40. The radial elastic modulus of GSVs ranged from 3.83 kPa to 7.74 kPa. This study verifies the feasibility of the OCE method for measuring the radial elastic modulus of blood vessels.