Time-efficient patient-specific quantification of regional carotid artery fluid dynamics and spatial correlation with plaque burden.

Purpose: Low wall shear stress (WSS) and high oscillatory shear index (OSI) influence plaque formation, yet little is known about their role in progression/regression of established plaques because of lack of practical means to calculate them in individual patients. Our aim was to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of patients with carotid plaque undergoing statin treatment to calculate WSS and OSI in a time-efficient manner, and determine their relationship to plaque thickness (PT), plaque composition (PC), and regression.

Methods: Eight patients (68 +/- 9 yr, one female) underwent multicontrast 3 T MRI at baseline and six-month post statin treatment.