Preconditioned prepared strips (n ϭ 78) of segments from the midregion of the left anterior descending coronary artery from the individual layers in axial and circumferential directions were subjected to cyclic quasi-static uniaxial tension tests, and ultimate tensile stresses and stretches were documented. The ratio of outer diameter to total wall thickness was 0.189 Ϯ 0.014; ratios of adventitia, media, and intima thickness to total wall thickness were 0.4 Ϯ 0.03, 0.36 Ϯ 0.03, and 0.27 Ϯ 0.02, respectively; axial in situ stretch of 1.044 Ϯ 0.06 decreased with age. Stress-stretch responses for the individual tissues showed pronounced mechanical heterogeneity. The intima is the stiffest layer over the whole deformation domain, whereas the media in the longitudinal direction is the softest. All specimens exhibited small hysteresis and anisotropic and strong nonlinear behavior in both loading directions. The media and intima showed similar ultimate tensile stresses, which are on average three times smaller than ultimate tensile stresses in the adventitia (1,430 Ϯ 604 kPa circumferential and 1,300 Ϯ 692 kPa longitudinal). The ultimate tensile stretches are similar for all tissue layers. A recently proposed constitutive model was extended and used to represent the deformation behavior for each tissue type over the entire loading range. The study showed the need to model nonstenotic human coronary arteries with nonatherosclerotic intimal thickening as a composite structure composed of three solid mechanically relevant layers with different mechanical properties. The intima showed significant thickness, load-bearing capacity, and mechanical strength compared with the media and adventitia.human left anterior descending coronary artery; elasticity; material model; mechanical properties; ultimate tensile strength ONE CENTRAL AIM IN CARDIOVASCULAR solid mechanics is the investigation of the mechanobiological behavior of arteries in health and disease, which may better explain their function on the basis of their structure and mechanics, i.e., vital information for clinical treatments of artery diseases, for designs of vascular implants such as stents and grafts, and for tissue engineering. For example, 657,000 percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) procedures were performed in the United States in 2002 (1). To improve our understanding of the mechanisms involved in PTCA procedures and stent designs, it is fundamental to better explore the mechanical properties and role of the separate arterial layers of coronary arterial walls and to develop efficient computational models.Most of the studies have focused on the mechanical properties of animal coronary arteries (3,11,22,25,26,33,42). In addition to a collagenous adventitia and a medial layer (consisting of smooth muscle, collagen, and some elastin), a coronary arterial wall may consist of a complex intimal layer that develops rapidly in early years and continues to grow gradually throughout life (41). This process is not observed in animals. The intima is a ...

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Knowledge of the biomechanical properties of human atherosclerotic plaques is of essential importance for developing more insights in the pathophysiology of the cardiovascular system and for better predicting the outcome of interventional treatments such as balloon angioplasty. Available data are mainly based on uniaxial tests, and most of the studies investigate the mechanical response of fibrous plaque caps only. However, stress distributions during, for example, balloon angioplasty are strongly influenced by all components of atherosclerotic lesions. A total number of 107 samples from nine human high-grade stenotic iliac arteries were tested; associated anamnesis of donors reported. Magnetic resonance imaging was employed to test the usability of the harvested arteries. Histological analyses has served to characterize the different tissue types. Prepared strips of 7 different tissue types underwent cyclic quasistatic uniaxial tension tests in axial and circumferential directions; ultimate tensile stresses and stretches were documented. Experimental data of individual samples indicated anisotropic and highly nonlinear tissue properties as well as considerable interspecimen differences. The calcification showed, however a linear property, with about the same stiffness as observed for the adventitia in high stress regions. The stress and stretch values at calcification fracture are smaller (179 +/- 56 kPa and 1.02 +/- 0.005) than for each of the other tissue components. Of all intimal tissues investigated, the lowest fracture stress occurred in the circumferential direction of the fibrous cap (254.8 +/- 79.8 kPa at stretch 1.182 +/- 0.1). The adventitia demonstrated the highest and the nondiseased media the lowest mechanical strength on average.

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Data relating to residual deformations in human arteries are scarce. In this paper we investigate three-dimensional residual deformations for intact strips and for their separate layers from human aortas in their passive state. From 11 abdominal aortas with identified anamnesis, 16 pairs of rings and axial strips were harvested, and the rings cut open. After 16 h images of the resulting geometries were recorded, and the strips were separated into their three layers; after another 6 h images were again recorded. Image processing and analysis was then used to quantify residual stretches and curvatures. For each specimen histological analysis established that the intima, media and adventitia were clearly separated, and the separation was atraumatic. Axial in situ stretches were determined to be 1.196+/-0.084. On separation, the strips from the adventitia and media shortened (between 4.03 and 8.76% on average), while the intimal strips elongated on average by 3.84% (circumferential) and 4.28% (axial) relative to the associated intact strips. After separation, the adventitia from the ring sprang open by about 180 degrees on average, becoming flat, the intima opened only slightly, but the media sprang open by more than 180 degrees (as did the intact strip). The adventitia and intima from the axial strips remained flat, while the media (and the intact strip) bent away from the vessel axis. This study has shown that residual deformations are three dimensional and cannot be described by a single parameter such as 'the' opening angle. Their quantification and modeling therefore require consideration of both stretching and bending, which are highly layer-specific and axially dependent.