Local characterization of collagen architecture and mechanical failure properties of fibrous plaque tissue of atherosclerotic human carotid arteries.

Atherosclerotic plaque rupture in carotid arteries is a major cause of cerebrovascular events. Plaque rupture is the mechanical failure of the heterogeneous fibrous plaque tissue. Local characterization of the tissue's failure properties and the collagen architecture are of great importance to have insights in plaque rupture for clinical event prevention.

A Method to Study the Correlation Between Local Collagen Structure and Mechanical Properties of Atherosclerotic Plaque Fibrous Tissue.

The rupture of atherosclerotic plaques in coronary and carotid arteries is the primary cause of fatal cardiovascular events. However, the rupture mechanics of the heterogeneous, highly collagenous plaque tissue, and how this is related to the tissue's fibrous structure, are not known yet. Existing pipelines to study plaque mechanics are limited to obtaining only gross mechanical characteristics of the plaque tissue, based on the assumption of structural homogeneity of the tissue.