Relation between plaque type, plaque thickness, blood shear stress, and plaque stress in coronary arteries assessed by X-ray Angiography and Intravascular Ultrasound

Purpose: Atheromatic plaque progression is affected, among others phenomena, by biomechanical, biochemical, and physiological factors. In this paper, the authors introduce a novel framework able to provide both morphological (vessel radius, plaque thickness, and type) and biomechanical (wall shear stress and Von Mises stress) indices of coronary arteries. Methods: First, the approach reconstructs the three-dimensional morphology of the vessel from intravascular ultrasound(IVUS) and Angiographic sequences, requiring minimal user interaction. Then, a computational pipeline allows to automatically assess fluid-dynamic and mechanical indices. Ten coronary arteries are analyzed illustrating the capabilities of the tool and confirming previous technical and clinical observations. Results: The relations between the arterial indices obtained by IVUS measurement and simulations have been quantitatively analyzed along the whole surface of the artery, extending the analysis of the coronary arteries shown in previous state of the art studies. Additionally, for the first time in the literature, the framework allows the computation of the membrane stresses using a simplified mechanical model of the arterial wall. Conclusions: Circumferentially (within a given frame), statistical analysis shows an inverse relation between the wall shear stress and the plaque thickness. At the global level (comparing a frame within the entire vessel), it is observed that heavy plaque accumulations are in general calcified and are located in the areas of the vessel having high wall shear stress. Finally, in their experiments the inverse proportionality between fluid and structural stresses is observed

IVUS – UBPCL(I)

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Informàtica, Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2013, Director: Petia RadevaEn los últimos años la medicina ha avanzado a una velocidad vertiginosa, en parte por nuevos descubrimientos y en parte causado por la evolución tecnológica. Esto hace que se presenten nuevos problemas, ya que ahora somos capaces de extraer gran cantidad de información, pero nos encontramos delante de un gran muro que hay que sortear. Este muro es la dificultad de tratar y obtener resultados de este volumen ingente de información. En nuestro caso, la tecnología IVUS ha supuesto un gran avance para la detección y el tratamiento de enfermedades de las arterias coronarias (EAC), pero también ha supuesto un reto cómo obtener la información, ya que, gracias a la tecnología IVUS tenemos que lidiar con una gran cantidad de imágenes. El objetivo de nuestro proyecto es crear una herramienta que ayude al profesional a tratar y procesar toda la información de la manera más cómoda y rápida posible para poder obtener el mejor resultado y diagnosticar o tratar al paciente