In Vivo Material Properties of Human Common Carotid Arteries: Trends and Sex Differences

• Published in: Cardiovascular engineering and technology Vol. 14; no. 6; pp. 840 - 852
• Main Authors: Smoljkić, Marija, Vander Sloten, Jos, Segers, Patrick, Famaey, Nele
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age factors; Arteries; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Biomedicine; Blood pressure; Blood Pressure - physiology; Body mass index; Body size; Cardiology; Cardiovascular Diseases; Carotid arteries; Carotid Arteries - physiology; Carotid Artery, Common - physiology; Constitutive models; Diameters; Female; Humans; Male; Material properties; Mathematical models; Mechanical properties; Medical materials; Original Article; Parameters; Physiological effects; Physiology; Sex Characteristics; Stiffening; Structural models; Trends; Human common carotid artery; Constitutive modelling; Material properties; In vivo parameter estimation
• DOI: 10.1007/s13239-023-00691-1
• ISSN: 1869-408X; 1869-4098

Introduction In vivo estimation of material properties of arterial tissue can provide essential insights into the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, these properties can be used as an input to finite element simulations of potential medical treatments. Materials and Methods This study uses non-invasively measured pressure, diameter and wall thickness of human common carotid arteries (CCAs) acquired in 103 healthy subjects. A non-linear optimization was performed to estimate material parameters of two different constitutive models: a phenomenological, isotropic model and a structural, anisotropic model. The effect of age, sex, body mass index and blood pressure on the parameters was investigated. Results and Conclusion Although both material models were able to model in vivo arterial behaviour, the structural model provided more realistic results in the supra-physiological domain. The phenomenological model predicted very high deformations for pressures above the systolic level. However, the phenomenological model has fewer parameters that were shown to be more robust. This is an advantage when only the physiological domain is of interest. The effect of stiffening with age, BMI and blood pressure was present for women, but not always for men. In general, sex had the biggest effect on the mechanical properties of CCAs. Stiffening trends with age, BMI and blood pressure were present but not very strong. The intersubject variability was high. Therefore, it can be concluded that finding a representative set of parameters for a certain age or BMI group would be very challenging. Instead, for purposes of patient-specific modelling of surgical procedures, we currently advise the use of patient-specific parameters.