adj. underlying the inner layer (*intima) of a blood vessel: commonly used in vascular and interventional radiology. When a blood vessel is occluded with atheroma, a channel is created in the subintimal plane with a wire and the vessel is opened up by *angioplasty and/or *stent insertion.
n. the cutting apart and separation of the body tissues along the natural divisions of the organs and different tissues in the course of an operation. In *interventional radiology, dissection refers specifically to pathological dissection of the intimal layer of an aorta or artery that allows blood to pass through *subintimal space. This may result in occlusion of the vessel branches. Dissection of corpses is carried out for the study of anatomy.... dissection
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