Using 2D in vivo ivus-based models for human coronary plaque progression analysis and comparison with 3d fsi models

It is believed that mechanical stress plays an important role in atherosclerotic plaque progression and rupture process. However, 3D model construction is very time consuming and not practical for clinical implementation. This paper is investigating if 2D models could be used to replace 3D models to perform correlation analysis and achieve similar results. Patient follow-up in vivo intravascular ultrasound coronary plaque data were acquired to construct 2D structure-only and 3D FSI models to obtain plaque wall stress (PWS) and strain (PWSn) data and investigate correlations between plaque progression measured by wall thickness increase(WTI) and three risk factors: wall thickness (WT), PWS and PWSn. Our results indicated that while stress/strain differences between 2D and 3D models were about 30%, correlation results from 2D models were in general consistent with those obtained from 3D models. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.