Fig. 9.

Morphometric measurements of the opening angle were conducted using custom-written software, which employs a least squares algorithm to fit a circle to the segmented outer and inner edges of the cut ring and axial strip of the arterial section. The circle’s center is then utilized to quantify the angle between the two edges of the sector. In this figure, yellow dashed lines indicate the best-fit circle, pink dots signify the circle’s radius, and white curves depict the opening angle (α – circumferential, β – longitudinal). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)