From Event: SPIE BiOS, 2016
Plaque rupture is the critical cause of cardiovascular thrombosis but this process is still under discussion. Recent studies show that, during crystallization, cholesterol crystals in atheromatous plaques accumulate rapidly in a limited space and may result in plaque rupture. However, the actual role of cholesterol crystals on plaque rupture remains unclear due to the lack of detailed morphological information of cholesterol crystals. In this study, we used a Micro-optical coherence tomography (µOCT) setup with 1-2 µm spatial resolution to extract the geometry of cholesterol crystals from human atherosclerotic artery ex vivo firstly. With measured dimensions of cholesterol crystals by this µOCT system (the average length and thickness of 269.1±80.16 µm and 3.0±0.33 µm), we developed a two-dimensional mechanical model in which rectangular shaped cholesterol crystals distribute at different locations spatially. We predicted the stress on the thin cap induced by the expansion of cholesterol crystals by use of finite-element method. Since a large portion of plaques (58%) rupture at points of peak circumferential stress (PCS), we used PCS as the primary indicator of plaque stability with blood pressure of 14.6 kPa on the lumen. The results demonstrate that loading of the concentrated crystals especially at the cap shoulder destabilize the plaque by proportionally increasing the PCS, while evenly distributed crystals loading along the cap might impose less PCS to the plaque than the concentrated case.
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Yuemei Luo M.D., Xinyu Liu Sr., Si Chen M.D., Dongyao Cui M.D., Xianghong Wang, and Linbo Liu, "Mechanical modeling of cholesterol crystallization in atherosclerotic plaques base on Micro-OCT images (Conference Presentation)," Proc. SPIE 9689, Photonic Therapeutics and Diagnostics XII, 96892P (Presented at SPIE BiOS: February 13, 2016; Published: 27 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2209247.4828143249001.
