Evaluation of the viscoelastic properties of pharyngeal tissue.

The viscoelastic properties of the human pharyngeal tissue in tension were evaluated, based on both an experimental protocol-consisting of cyclic load, tensile stress relaxation, and incremental step load tests-and a quasilinear viscoelastic theory. The physical properties of the pharyngeal tissue were evaluated to facilitate the biomechanical modeling of human pharynx. The methodology described has potentially significant clinical importance when one considers engineering a similar type of tissue having the same material properties in the future. Qualitatively, the characteristic features of viscoelastic properties of human pharyngeal tissue were experimentally obtained. Then, the reduced stress relaxation function and the elastic response of the pharyngeal tissue were derived from the experimental results specifically obtained from this tissue, by applying the quasilinear viscoelastic theory. The mathematical expression for analyzing nonlinear viscoelastic properties of human pharyngeal tissue is presented, as is the experimental protocol to evaluate the tissue properties. The characteristic features of the tissue need to be considered when attempting to engineer this tissue equivalent, and the data generated can be utilized to evaluate the function of tissue when it is engineered.