Fig. 6.

The mean angle of collagen fiber orientation of different arterial regions, except for the luminal side behind the stent and between struts (because of the random fiber orientation or very low r value) and the luminal side distal to stent (as no fibrous collagen was imaged). The mean angle values of collagen fibers (○) behind two adjacent struts were averaged and presented as one value. Moreover, to present the axial alignment of fibers, mean fiber angles larger than 90° were deducted from 180° for regions immediately distal to the stent (×,◻). The slope of the regression line showed no significant deviation from zero.