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Abstract #0504

Arterial Luminal Curvature and Fibrous Cap Thickness Affects Critical Stresses Within Atherosclerotic Plaques: An in Vivo MRI-Based Finite Element Method Simulation Study

Zhongzhao Teng1, Umar Sadat1, Zhiyong Li, 12, Chengcheng Zhu1, Victoria Young1, Martin John Graves1, Jonathan H. Gillard1

1University Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; 2School of Biological Science & Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China


It has been widely accepted that the plaque rupture is the result of the loading due to blood pressure and flow exceeds the material strength of the fibrous cap (FC) and the site with thin FC is regarded as the vulnerable site. Considerable research has been done to discover the correlation between FC thickness and critical stress conditions, however, the relationship of arterial luminal curvature remains unexplored. We found that stress value taken from the thinnest location will significantly over-estimate the plaque stability. For a better plaque risk assessment, stress at the sites with maximum lumen curvature should be included.