Key result
Three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction simulations in 15 patients highlighted that both morphology and mechanical properties of plaque components crucially determine plaque vulnerability.
Why the study?
Most computational studies evaluating plaque-blood flow interplay used nonstandard medical images unavailable in clinical practice to delineate plaques.
A novel geometric tool and 3D FSI simulations demonstrate that plaque morphology and mechanical properties are crucial for determining carotid plaque vulnerability.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May refine carotid plaque risk models; hypothesis-generating from small simulations and requires prospective validation.
Atherosclerosis is a systemic disease that leads to accumulation of deposits, known as atherosclerotic plaques, within the walls of the carotids. In particular, three types of plaque can be distinguished: soft, fibrous, and calcific. Most of the computational studies who investigated the interplay between the plaque and the blood flow on patient-specific geometries used nonstandard medical images to directly delineate and segment the plaque and its components. However, these techniques are not so widely available in the clinical practice. In this context, the aim of our work was twofold: (i) to propose a new geometric tool that allowed to reconstruct a plausible plaque in the carotids from standard images and (ii) to perform three-dimensional (3D) fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations where we compared some fluid-dynamic and structural quantities among 15 patients characterized by different typologies of plaque. Our results highlighted that both the morphology and the mechanical properties of different plaque components play a crucial role in determining the vulnerability of the plaque.
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Bennati et al. (2021) studied Carotid atherosclerosis (n=15). 3D fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations was evaluated on Fluid-dynamic and structural quantities. Three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction simulations in 15 patients highlighted that both morphology and mechanical properties of plaque components crucially determine plaque vulnerability.
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