Angioplasty Induced Changes in Dialysis Vascular Access Compliance.

Dialysis vascular access remains vitally important to maintain life and functional capacity with end stage renal disease. Angioplasty is an integral part of maintaining dialysis access function and patency. To understand the effect of angioplasty balloon dilation on vascular wall mechanics, we conducted a clinical study to evaluate the elastic modulus of the anastomosis in five subjects with anastomosis stenoses, before and after six angioplasty procedures, using B-mode ultrasound DICOM data.