Carotid Artery Wall Shear Stress: Distribution, Correlation with Geometry and Effect of Atherosclerosis

Michael Markl¹, Timo Zech², Simon Bauer¹, Felix Wegent², Aurelien F. Stalder¹, Christoph Strecker², Andreas Harloff²

The purpose of this study was to assess the physiological distribution of absolute wall shear stress and oscillatory shear index in the entire carotid bifurcation in healthy volunteers (n=64 carotid bifurcations) and to evaluate their dependence on individual bifurcation geometry. Further, the distribution of critical wall parameters was compared with findings in patients with moderate internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis before (n=6) and after surgical recanalization (n=11). Bifurcation geometry predicted exposure to critical wall parameters and may thus be an indicator for the risk of developing flow-mediated atherosclerosis. Carotid artery stenosis and treatment altered the distribution of critical wall parameters.