Tensile and compressive properties of fresh human carotid atherosclerotic plaques

An anisotropic inelastic constitutive model to describe stress softening and permanent deformation in arterial tissue

“…The mechanical behaviour of arterial tissue and plaque is commonly described using hyperelastic material models (Delfino et al, 1997;Holzapfel et al, 2000;Lally et al, 2004;Maher et al, 2009); however these models typically do not incorporate damage effects and as a result are limited when modelling the effects of non-physiological loading during surgical interventions. The Mullins effect theory does not implicitly account for inelastic strains and many damage models omit permanent set from the formulation (Alastrué et al, 2007;Balzani et al, 2006;Calvo et al, 2007;Hokanson and Yazdani, 1997).…”

Biomechanical Behavior of Atherosclerotic Plaque

“…When the data were identified with their plaque's composition, calcified plaques were generally stiffer or failed at a lower stretch than non-calcified plaques, as expected. In those reports showing the stress-stretch data, tensile behaviors were also nonlinear (Sherebrin et al 1987;Born and Richardson 1990;Lendon et al 1993;Loree et al 1994b;Holzapfel et al 2004;Maher et al 2009;Teng et al 2009;Lawlor et al 2011;Mulvihill et al 2013). Finally, the tensile behaviors were highly variable.…”

“…Often, considerable time passes before the specimens are removed at autopsy, and more time elapses before the specimen becomes available to test. This prompted Maher et al (2009) and Barrett et al (2009), for example, to obtain carotid plaque specimens freshly removed during endarterectomy and perform mechanical tests within 2-3 h. The choice of specimen source will depend on the specific research objectives.…”

“…PanVascular Medicine DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-37393-0_31-1 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Results of unconfined compression tests show that plaque response depends on the rate of loading (Lee et al 1991), that is, the compressive behavior is viscoelastic. Another common result for plaque properties is that the compressive stiffness depends on the plaque or plaque cap material: nonfibrous (atheromatous) plaques were the least stiff, followed by fibrous, and calcified plaques were the stiffest (Lee et al 1992;Topoleski et al 1997;Salunke et al 2001;Maher et al 2009Maher et al , 2011. Stiffness measurements are often determined differently between studies.…”

“…Stiffness measurements are often determined differently between studies. In some cases, axial stiffness and in others shear moduli are calculated (Lee et al 1991(Lee et al , 1992Salunke et al 2001;Maher et al 2009). For example, Lee et al (1991Lee et al ( , 1992 reported frequency-dependent moduli of 0.52, 0.91, and 2.18 MPa for cellular, fibrous, and calcified plaques, respectively.…”