Circulatory and Respiratory Physiology Commons^™

Implementation And Validation Of Aortic Remodeling In Hypertensive Rats, Shijia Zhao, Linxia Gu

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

A computational framework was implemented and validated to better understand the hypertensive artery remodeling in both geometric dimensions and material properties. Integrating the stress-modulated remodeling equations into commercial finite element codes allows a better control and visualization of local mechanical parameters. Both arterial thickening and stiffening effects were captured and visualized. An adaptive material remodeling strategy combined with the element birth and death techniques for the geometrical growth were implemented. The numerically predicted remodeling results in terms of the wall thickness, inner diameter, and the ratio of elastin to collagen content of the artery were compared with and fine-tuned by …

Systems Biology Of The Functional And Dysfunctional Endothelium, Jennifer Frueh, Nataly Maimari, Takayuki Homma, Sandra M. Bovens, Ryan M. Pedrigi, Leila Towhidi, Rob Krams

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

This review provides an overview of the effect of blood flow on endothelial cell (EC) signalling pathways, applying microarray technologies to cultured cells, and in vivo studies of normal and atherosclerotic animals. It is found that in cultured ECs, 5–10% of genes are up- or down-regulated in response to fluid flow, whereas only 3–6% of genes are regulated by varying levels of fluid flow. Of all genes, 90%are regulated by the steady part of fluid flow and 10% by pulsatile components. The associated gene profiles show high variability from experiment to experiment depending on experimental conditions, and importantly, the bioinformatical …

Effects Of Arterial Strain And Stress In The Prediction Of Restenosis Risk: Computer Modeling Of Stent Trials, Shijia Zhao, Linxia Gu, Stacey R. Froemming

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Purpose — In-stenting restenosis is one of the major complications after stenting. Clinical trials of various stent designs have reported different restenosis rates. However, quantitative correlation between stent features and restenosis statistics is scant. In this work, it is hypothesized that stress concentrations on arterial wall caused artery injury, which initiates restenosis. The goal is to assess the correlation between stent-induced arterial stress and strain and the documented restenosis rates.

Methods — Six commercially available stents, including balloon-expandable stents and self-expanding stents, were virtually implanted into the arteries through finite element method. The resulted peak Von Mises stress, principal stress, …