The relationships between the morphological characteristics and the vulnerability of atherosclerotic plaque were analyzed theoretically and several suggestions were proposed to evaluate the plaque vulnerability. Validated by animal experiments and clinical studies, the theoretical results were confirmed.
SU HaiJunZHANG PengFeiCHEN WenQiangZHANG MeiZHANG Yun
Rupture of atherosclerotic plaque is the main trigger of acute cardiovascular events, but the mechanism of plaque rupture is still unknown. We have constructed a model describing the motion of the fibrous cap of the plaque using the theory of elastic mechanics and studied the stability of the plaque theoretically. It has shown that plaque rupture is the result of a dynamic interplay between factors intrinsic to the plaque itself and extrinsic factors. We have proposed a new mechanism of plaque rupture, given a new explanation about the nonlinear dynamic progress of atherosclerosis and suggested a method to identify the vulnerable plaques to manage atherosclerosis.
SU Haijun1, ZHANG Mei2 & ZHANG Yun2 1. School of Mathematics and System Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
