@Article{mcb.2009.006.121,
AUTHOR = {Xueying Huang, Chun Yang, Chun Yuan, Fei Liu, Gador Canton,  Jie Zheng, Pamela K. Woodard, Gregorio A. Sicard, Dalin Tang},
TITLE = {Patient-Specific Artery Shrinkage and 3D Zero-Stress State in Multi-Component 3D FSI Models for Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaques Based on <i>In Vivo</i> MRI Data},
JOURNAL = {Molecular \& Cellular Biomechanics},
VOLUME = {6},
YEAR = {2009},
NUMBER = {2},
PAGES = {121--134},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/mcb/v6n2/28483},
ISSN = {1556-5300},
ABSTRACT = {Image-based computational models for atherosclerotic plaques have been developed to perform mechanical analysis to quantify critical flow and stress/strain conditions related to plaque rupture which often leads directly to heart attack or stroke. An important modeling issue is how to determine zero stress state from <i>in vivo</i> plaque geometries. This paper presents a method to quantify human carotid artery axial and inner circumferential shrinkages by using patient-specific <i>ex vivo</i> and <i>in vivo</i> MRI images. A shrink-stretch process based on patient-specific <i>in vivo</i> plaque morphology and shrinkage data was introduced to shrink the <i>in vivo</i> geometry first to find the zero-stress state (opening angle was ignored to reduce the complexity), and then stretch and pressurize to recover the <i>in vivo</i> plaque geometry with computed initial stress, strain, flow pressure and velocity conditions. Effects of the shrink-stretch process on plaque stress/strain distributions were demonstrated based on patient-specific data using 3D models with fluid-structure interactions (FSI). The average artery axial and inner circumferential shrinkages were 25% and 7.9%, respectively, based on a data set obtained from 10 patients. Maximum values of maximum principal stress and strain increased 349.8% and 249% respectively with 33% axial stretch. Influence of inner circumferential shrinkage (7.9%) was not very noticeable under 33% axial stretch, but became more noticeable under smaller axial stretch. Our results indicated that accurate knowledge of artery shrinkages and the shrink-stretch process will considerably improve the accuracy of computational predictions made based on results from those <i>in vivo</i> MRI-based FSI models.},
DOI = {10.3970/mcb.2009.006.121}
}