Intima-medial thickness

Markwood TT, Kent SM, Coyle LC, Flaherty PJ, O Malley PG, Taylor AJ. Design and rationale of the ARBITER Trial (Arterial Biology for the Investigation of the Treatment Effects of Reducing Cholesterol) a randomized trial comparing the effects of atorvastatin on carotid artery intima-medial thickness. Am Heart J 2001 141 ... 

The intima is the innermost layer composed of endothelial cells attached to the basement membrane. The thickness of the intimal media layer has been reported to be 0.2-0.4 mm for the carotid artery (Salonen etal., 1993). So ideally the suture should have a diameter less than 0.4 mm. A barbed suture designed for this type of anastomosis would require shallower cut angles with shorter cut lengths. This will make sure that the barbs do not penetrate beyond the media on either side after interlocking with medial... 

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