Increased glomerular expression of all three factors occurs from the earliest stage of diabetic nephropathy. In contrast to THBS1, CTGF is required for mesangial synthesis of fibronectin stimulated by high glucose or glycated albumin, and is thus a potential therapeutic target.

SUMMARYCoupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis of the human right coronary artery (RCA) has been carried out to investigate the effects of wall compliance on coronary hemodynamics. A 3-D model of a stenosed RCA was reconstructed based on multislice computerized tomography images. A velocity waveform in the proximal RCA and a pressure waveform in the distal RCA of a patient with a severe stenosis were acquired with a catheter delivered wire probe and applied as boundary conditions. The arterial wall was modeled as a Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic material. The predicted maximum wall displacement (3.85 mm) was comparable with the vessel diameter (∼ 4mm), but the diameter variation was much smaller, 0.134 mm at the stenosis and 0.486 mm in the distal region. Comparison of the computational results between the FSI and rigid-wall models showed that the instantaneous wall shear stress (WSS) distributions were affected by diameter variation in the arterial wall; increasing systolic blood pressure dilated the vessel and consequently lowered WSS, whereas the opposite occurred when pressure started to decrease. However, the effects of wall compliance on time-averaged WSS (TAWSS) and oscillatory shear index (OSI) were insignificant (4.5 and 2.7% difference in maximum TAWSS and OSI, respectively).

Background: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a dilatation of the aortic wall, which can rupture, if left untreated. Previous work has shown that, maximum diameter is not a reliable determinant of AAA rupture. However, it is currently the most widely accepted indicator. Wall stress may be a better indicator and promising patient specific results from structural models using static pressure, have been published. Since flow and pressure inside AAA are non-uniform, the dynamic interaction between the pulsatile flow and wall may influence the predicted wall stress. The purpose of the present study was to compare static and dynamic wall stress analysis of patient specific AAAs.