Catastrophe Analysis Of Atherosclerotic Plaque Rupture

Rupture of atherosclerotic plaque is the main trigger of acute cardiovascular events, the results based on the clinical research explained some facts of the rupture of atherosclerotic plaque and summarized some characteristics of unstable plaque, but the mechanism of plaque rupture is still unknown. HaijunSu et constructed static and dynamic models to describe the relation between the motion of the fibrous cap and rupture of atherosclerotic plaque using the theory of elastic mechanics. They gave a new model that parameter resonance could lead to atherosclerotic plaque rupture. The results obtained from the model were consistent with the clinical experiments. Beginning with catastrophe theory, this paper constructed a cusp catastrophe model based on the static model to describe the motion of the fibrous cap. In this paper, assuming that the fibrous cap of the plaque as a homogeneous isotropic and linear elastic thin shell, and using the energy liberation and the principle of stationary potential energy, we make a further study between the motion of the fibrous cap and rupture of atherosclerotic plaque. This article is composed of four chapters.In the first chapter, we first introduced the pathology foundation of atherosclerosis, the viewpoint of the vulnerable plaque as well as the common characteristic. Meanwhile, we briefly reviewed the progress in biomechanical studies of plaque rupture and the new results obtained from the clinic research, and then introduced the catastrophe theory and the main methods in this article.In the second chapter, assuming that the fibrous cap of the plaque as a homogeneous isotropic and linear elastic thin shell, we constructed energy equation and cusp catastrophe model based on the law of conservation of energy. The results show that the cap would lose the stability and deform largely when the pressure of the fibrous cap exceeded some critical values, which may induce the plaque to rupture. The minimum critical pressure is shown as below, According to the analysis ofqcr, we have proved that the plaque would be more vulnerable when it has a elastic, compressive, thin and flexible fibrous cap.In the third chapter, we discuss the stability of the plaque from the point of view of energy and analyze the relationship between the energy per unit volume which released by the fibrous cap and rupture of atherosclerotic plaque. It has showed that the more energy released the plaque rupture more easily, and the reverse is also true. The energyΔΠ/V is shown as below,The fourth chapter is the summary. We elaborate the mechanisms of plaque rupture in the cusp catastrophe model and discuss the plaque stability affected by paths of several parameters. Moreover, we also point out the shortcomings of this article as well as the problem should be solved.