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An investigation into the role of different constituents in damage accumulation in arterial tissue and constitutive model development

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Abstract

Carotid atherosclerotic plaque rupture is one of the leading causes of stroke. Treatments for atherosclerosis can induce tissue damage during the deployment of an intravascular device or through external tissue clamping during surgery. In this paper, a constituent specific study was performed to investigate the role of the ground matrix and collagen fibres of arterial tissue in response to supra-physiological loads. Cyclic mechanical tests were conducted on intact and collagenase-digested strips of porcine common carotid arteries. Using these tests, four passive damage-relevant phenomena were studied, namely (i) Mullins effect, (ii) hysteresis, (iii) permanent set and (iv) matrix failure and fibre rupture. A constitutive model was also developed to capture all of these damage-relevant phenomena using a continuum damage mechanics approach. The implemented constitutive model was fit to experimental results for both intact and digested samples. The results of this work demonstrate the important role of the ground matrix in the permanent deformation of the arterial tissue under high loads. Supra-physiological load-induced tissue damage may play a key role in vascular remodelling in arteries with atherosclerosis or following interventional procedures.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Professor Daniel Balzani and Professor Estefania Pena who kindly shared their experimental results with us at preliminary stages of this study. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Peter O’Reilly, the Senior Experimental Officer of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 637674) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the Grant Numbers SFI/13/CDA/2145 and SFI-15/ERCS/3273.

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  1. Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Milad Ghasemi, David R. Nolan & Caitríona Lally

  2. Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Milad Ghasemi, David R. Nolan & Caitríona Lally

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  1. Milad Ghasemi
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Correspondence to Caitríona Lally.

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Ghasemi, M., Nolan, D.R. & Lally, C. An investigation into the role of different constituents in damage accumulation in arterial tissue and constitutive model development. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 17, 1757–1769 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-018-1054-3

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