Clinical Implications of Peripheral Plaque Morphology

Human lower extremity arterial segments will be obtained at autopsy and from amputation specimens. All imaging studies and vessel fixation will be undertaken immediately upon vessel procurement; in most cases this will occur within 2 hours of dissection and within 24 hours of death. The ex vivo portion of the study will make use of 150 excised vessels obtained over a 48-month period from randomly selected autopsy cases. From these vessels we expect to collect data from a minimum of 560 plaques

Standard diagnostic arteriographic images will be obtained. Appropriate oblique views will be acquired at the common femoral bifurcation. Next, IVUS will be performed obtaining ultrasound data from a 10 cm lower extremity artery.