Iliac Veins Are More Compressible Than Iliac Arteries: A New Method of Testing

Incompressibility implies that a tissue preserves its volume regardless of the loading conditions. Although this assumption is well-established in arterial wall mechanics, it is assumed to apply for the venous wall without validation. The objective of this study is to test whether the incompressibility assumption holds for the venous wall. To investigate the vascular wall volume under different loading conditions, inflation-extension testing protocol was used in conjunction with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in both common iliac arteries (n = 6 swine) and common iliac veins (n = 9 dogs). Use of IVUS allows direct visualizations of lumen dimensions simultaneous with direct measurements of outer dimensions during loading. The arterial tissue was confirmed to preserve volume during various load conditions (p = 0.11) consistent with the literature, while the venous tissue was found to lose volume (about 35%) under loaded conditions (p < 0.05). Using a novel methodology, this study shows the incompressibility assumption does not hold for the venous wall especially at higher pressures, which suggests that there may be fluid loss through the vein wall during loading. This has important implications for coupling of fluid transport across the wall and biomechanics of the wall in healthy and diseased conditions.