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Surrounding tissues affect the passive mechanics of the vessel wall: theory and experiment

¹Department of Biomedical Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana; ²Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction, Aalborg University and Center of Excellence for Visceral Biomechanics and Pain, Aalborg Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark; and ³Department of Surgery, ⁴Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, and ⁵Indiana Center for Vascular Biology and Medicine, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana

Submitted 8 June 2007 ; accepted in final form 12 September 2007

The stress and strain in the vessel wall are important determinants of vascular physiology and pathophysiology. Vessels are constrained radially by the surrounding tissue. The hypothesis in this work is that the surrounding tissue takes up a considerable portion of the intravascular pressure and significantly reduces the wall strain and stress. Ten swine of either sex were used to test this hypothesis. An impedance catheter was inserted into the carotid or femoral artery, and after mechanical preconditioning pressure-cross-sectional area relations were obtained with the surrounding tissue intact and dissected away (untethered), respectively. The radial constraint of the surrounding tissue was quantified as an effective perivascular pressure on the outer surface of the vessel, which was estimated as 50% or more of the intravascular pressure. For carotid arteries at pressure of 100 mmHg, the circumferential wall stretch ratio in the intact state was 20% lower than in the untethered state and the average circumferential stress was reduced by 70%. For femoral arteries, the reductions were 15% and 70%, respectively. These experimental data support the proposed hypothesis and suggest that in vitro and in vivo measurements of the mechanical properties of vessels must be interpreted with consideration of the constraint of the surrounding tissue.

stress analysis; strain; impedance planimetry; carotid artery; femoral artery

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Y. Liu, W. Zhang, and G. S. Kassab Effects of myocardial constraint on the passive mechanical behaviors of the coronary vessel wall Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, January 1, 2008; 294(1): H514 - H523. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]