Fig. 11.

Effect of cluster volume thresholding. Curves show SMC density as a function of the relative radial coordinate ($\mathit{\rho }-r$), where $\mathit{\rho }$ is the radial coordinate as defined in Fig. 3a and r is half of the detected vessel diameter ($\frac{1}{2}d$). Pooled data of five samples at a luminal pressure of $40\mathrm{mmHg}$ are shown [those (non-rotated) samples that were also used for assessing reproducibility (Table 1) and the effects of rotation (Fig. 9)]. The lower volume threshold ($V_{\mathrm{threshold},\mathrm{L}}$, blue, dashed line) removed clusters mainly at the inner side of the wall, whereas the upper volume threshold ($V_{\mathrm{threshold},\mathrm{U}}$, red, dotted line) removed clusters mainly at the outer side of the wall. Percentages pertain to the number of clusters in each stack that were excluded/included, respectively ($\mathrm{mean}\pm \mathrm{SD}$). SD standard deviation, SMC smooth muscle cell