A Novel Finite Element Model on Atherosclerotic Plaques: Effect of Heart Rate by Mehrdad Zareh, Bahman Naser and Hadi Mohammadi in Open Access Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Biosciences (OAJBEB) in Lupine Publishers
Abstract
Atherosclerotic plaques are highly
heterogeneous, nonlinear materials with uncharacteristic structural behaviors.
It is well known that mechanics of atherosclerotic plaques significantly depend
on plaque geometry, location, composition, and loading conditions.
Computational studies have shown great potential to characterize this
mechanical behavior. Different types of plaque morphologies and mechanical
properties have been used in a computational platform to estimate the stability
of rupture-prone plaques and detect their locations. In this study, we
hypothesize that heart rate (HR) is also one of the major factors that should be
taken into account while mechanics of plaques is studied. We propose a tunable
viscoelastic constitutive material model for the fibrous cap tissue in order to
calculate the peak cap stress (PCS) in normal physiological (dynamic)
conditions while HR changes from 60 bpm to 150 bpm in 2D plane stress models. A
critical discussion on stress distribution in the fibrous cap area is made with respect to HR for the first time.
Results strongly suggest the viscoelastic properties of the fibrous cap tissue
and HR together play a major role in the estimation of the PCS values. The
results of current study may provide a better understanding on the mechanics of
vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques.
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