An in vivo parameter identification method for arteries: numerical validation for the human abdominal aorta

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Mechanics
• Cardiovascular Research

Background:

• Accurate characterization of arterial mechanical properties is crucial for understanding cardiovascular health and disease.
• In vivo assessment of arterial biomechanics presents significant challenges due to complex physiological conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and numerically validate a novel method for identifying in vivo mechanical properties of arterial tissue.
• To assess the method's accuracy for healthy and pathological human abdominal aortas.

Main Methods:

• Development of a parameter identification method using pressure-radius data.
• Numerical validation using 22 finite element models of the human abdominal aorta with known properties.
• Generation of synthetic pressure-radius data from in silico experiments for method testing.

Main Results:

• The method accurately identified material constants for elastin and stress-free radius in healthy abdominal aortas.
• Slight discrepancies were observed for collagen-related constants and axial prestretch in healthy models.
• The method successfully distinguished pathological aortas, though parameter identification showed larger errors in diseased cases.

Conclusions:

• The proposed parameter identification method is quantitatively validated for in vivo arterial mechanical property assessment.
• The method demonstrates potential for diagnosing healthy versus pathological abdominal aortas using clinical data.
• Further refinement may improve accuracy for collagen properties and axial prestretch in clinical applications.