Considering the Influence of Coronary Motion on Artery-Specific Biomechanics Using Fluid-Structure Interaction...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Biomechanics
• Medical Imaging and Modeling

Background:

• Coronary artery endothelium is influenced by wall shear stress and vessel wall strain.
• Accurate biomechanical modeling is crucial for understanding arterial wall biology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply vessel-specific fluid-structure interaction (FSI) models for coronary arteries.
• To investigate the impact of coronary artery bending on biomechanical factors like shear stress and strain.

Main Methods:

• Utilized directly measured experimental geometries and boundary conditions for three coronary arteries.
• Developed FSI models, incorporating coronary bending, to simulate blood flow and vessel deformation.
• Compared FSI results with and without bending against traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Main Results:

• FSI models with bending significantly altered all computed shear stress metrics compared to CFD (p < 0.0001).
• Bending caused substantial changes in Time Averaged Wall Shear Stress (TAWSS), Oscillatory Shear Index (OSI), and transverse wall Shear Stress (tSS) across different coronary arteries.
• Vessel wall strain transitioned from homogenous to highly anisotropic under bending, with significant changes in cyclic strain magnitude.

Conclusions:

• Coronary artery bending introduces significant biomechanical changes, affecting shear stress and strain distribution.
• The impact of bending is vessel-specific, highlighting the need for individualized analysis.
• Bending should be considered in biomechanical analyses of coronary artery function and disease.