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The Effects of Anisotropy on the Stress Analyses of Patient-Specific Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

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Abstract

The local dilation of the infrarenal abdominal aorta, termed an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), is often times asymptomatic and may eventually result in rupture—an event associated with a significant mortality rate. The estimation of in-vivo stresses within AAAs has been proposed as a useful tool to predict the likelihood of rupture. For the current work, a previously-derived anisotropic relation for the AAA wall was implemented into patient-specific finite element simulations of AAA. There were 35 AAAs simulated in the current work which were broken up into three groups: elective repairs (n = 21), non-ruptured repairs (n = 5), and ruptured repairs (n = 9). Peak stresses and strains were compared using the anisotropic and isotropic constitutive relations. There were significant increases in peak stress when using the anisotropic relationship (p < 0.001), even in the absence of the ILT (p = 0.014). Rutpured AAAs resulted in elevated peak stresses as compared to non-ruptured AAAs when using both the isotropic and anisotropic simulations, however these comparisons did not reach significance (p ani = 0.55, p iso = 0.73). While neither the isotropic or anisotropic simulations were able to significantly discriminate ruptured vs. non-ruptured AAAs, the lower p-value when using the anisotropic model suggests including it into patient-specific AAAs may help better identify AAAs at high risk.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the NIH (R01-HL-60670) to DAV as well as The Pittsburgh Foundation (#M2000-0027) to DAV. The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance from the Engineered Tissue Mechanics Laboratory, Wei Sun PhD, Elena Di Martino PhD, Ajay Bohra MS, as well as Michel Makaroun, MD and the rest of the Division of Vascular Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. MSS is an Established Investigator of the AHA.

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Author notes

  1. Jonathan P. Vande Geest

    Present address: Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA

    Jonathan P. Vande Geest, David E. Schmidt, Michael S. Sacks & David A. Vorp

  2. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, 100 Technology Drive, Suite 200, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA

    Michael S. Sacks & David A. Vorp

  3. Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA

    David A. Vorp

  4. Center for Vascular Remodeling and Regeneration, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219, USA

    David A. Vorp

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  1. Jonathan P. Vande Geest
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  2. David E. Schmidt
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  4. David A. Vorp
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Correspondence to David A. Vorp.

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Vande Geest, J.P., Schmidt, D.E., Sacks, M.S. et al. The Effects of Anisotropy on the Stress Analyses of Patient-Specific Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. Ann Biomed Eng 36, 921–932 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-008-9490-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-008-9490-3

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