Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2010 Sep;83(993):729-35.
doi: 10.1259/bjr/49957752. Epub 2010 Jul 20.

Introduction to the biomechanics of carotid plaque pathogenesis and rupture: review of the clinical evidence

G C Makris  1 , A N Nicolaides, X Y Xu, G Geroulakos
Affiliations
Review

Introduction to the biomechanics of carotid plaque pathogenesis and rupture: review of the clinical evidence

G C Makris et al. Br J Radiol. 2010 Sep.

Abstract

The management of patients with asymptomatic carotid disease is currently under debate and new methods are warranted for better risk stratification. The role of the biomechanical properties of the atherosclerotic arterial wall together with the effect of different stress types in plaque destabilisation has only been recently investigated. PubMed and Scopus databases were reviewed. There is preliminary clinical evidence demonstrating that the analysis of the combined effect of the various types of biomechanical stress acting on the carotid plaque may help us to identify the vulnerable plaque. At present, MRI and two-dimensional ultrasound are combined with fluid-structure interaction techniques to produce maps of the stress variation within the carotid wall, with increased cost and complexity. Stress wall analysis can be a useful tool for carotid plaque evaluation; however, further research and a multidisciplinary approach are deemed as necessary for further development in this direction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Wall shear and the corresponding tensile stress (in N m–2) patterns for a normal carotid bifurcation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Summary of the effect of wall shear stress (WSS) on atherosclerotic plaque development and rupture. TGF, transforming growth factor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Executive Committee for the Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis Study Endarterectomy for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis. JAMA 1995;273:1421–8 - PubMed
    1. Barnett HJ, Taylor DW, Eliasziw M, Fox AJ, Ferguson GG, Haynes RB, et al. Benefit of carotid endarterectomy in patients with symptomatic moderate or severe stenosis. North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial Collaborators. N Engl J Med 1998;12:339:1415–25 - PubMed
    1. European Carotid Surgery Trialists Collaborative Group Randomised trial of endarterectomy for recently symptomatic carotid stenosis: final results of the MRC European Carotid Surgery Trial (ECST). Lancet 1998;351:1379–87 - PubMed
    1. Hollander M, Hak AE, Koudstaal PJ, Bots ML, Grobbee DE, Hofman A, et al. Comparison between measures of atherosclerosis and risk of stroke, The Rotterdam Study. Stroke 2003;34:2367–73 - PubMed
    1. Kakkos SK, Stevens JM, Nicolaides AN, Kyriacou E, Pattichis CS, Geroulakos G, et al. Texture analysis of ultrasonic images of symptomatic carotid plaques can identify those plaques associated with ipsilateral embolic brain infarction. Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg 2007;33:422–9 - PubMed

MeSH terms