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.