Flexible intravascular thermal sensors to assess atherosclerosis-mediated changes in hemodynamics

Abstract

In this study, we introduced an in vivo convective heat transfer-based micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensor that measured real-time experimental vascular shear stress values in the aortas of New Zealand White rabbits (n=4). Experiments were performed to measure flow profile changes in response to hyper-cholesterol diet and an irregular tachycardia condition. We have shown that these conditions induce shear stress changes indicative of pre-atherosclerosis regions by the MEMS thermal sensor.