A comparative study on plaque vulnerability using constitutive equations

Atherosclerosis is the most serious and common form of cardiovascular disease in which plaque builds up inside the arteries. Peak plaque stress is considered as the main reason for plaque rupture, which results in heart attack and stroke. In the current research, the finite element method is used to anticipate plaque vulnerability, using human samples. A total of 23 healthy and atherosclerotic human coronary arteries (14 healthy and 9 atherosclerotic) were removed within 5 h postmortem. The samples were mounted on a uniaxial tensile test machine and the obtained mechanical properties were used in finite element models. The peak plaque stresses for the Ogden hyperelastic model were compared to the Mooney-Rivlin and Neo-Hookean outcomes. The results indicated that hypocellular plaque in all three models has the highest stress values compared to the cellular and calcified ones and, as a result, is quite prone to rupture. The calcified plaque type, in contrast, has the lowest stress values and remains stable. The results can be used in plaque vulnerability prediction and have clinical implications for interventions and surgeries such as balloon-angioplasty, cardiopulmonary bypass and stenting.