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A multiscale approach for determining the morphology of endothelial cells at a coronary artery
Author(s) -
Pakravan Hossein Ali,
Saidi Mohammad Said,
Firoozabadi Bahar
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.741
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 2040-7947
pISSN - 2040-7939
DOI - 10.1002/cnm.2891
Subject(s) - morphology (biology) , cardiology , artery , medicine , biology , zoology
The morphology of endothelial cells (ECs) may be an indication for determining atheroprone sites. Until now, there has been no clinical imaging technique to visualize the morphology of ECs in the arteries. The present study introduces a computational technique for determining the morphology of ECs. This technique is a multiscale simulation consisting of the artery scale and the cell scale. The artery scale is a fluid‐structure interaction simulation. The input for the artery scale is the geometry of the coronary artery, that is, the dynamic curvature of the artery due to the cardiac motion, blood flow, blood pressure, heart rate, and the mechanical properties of the blood and the arterial wall, the measurements of which can be obtained for a specific patient. The results of the artery scale are wall shear stress (WSS) and cyclic strains as the mechanical stimuli of ECs. The cell scale is an inventive mass‐and‐spring model that is able to determine the morphological response of ECs to any combination of mechanical stimuli. The results of the multiscale simulation show the morphology of ECs at different locations of the coronary artery. The results indicate that the atheroprone sites have at least 1 of 3 factors: low time‐averaged WSS, high angle of WSS, and high longitudinal strain. The most probable sites for atherosclerosis are located at the bifurcation region and lie on the myocardial side of the artery. The results also indicated that a higher dynamic curvature is a negative factor and a higher pulse pressure is a positive factor for protection against atherosclerosis.