Distinguish the Stable and Unstable Plaques Based on Arterial Waveform Analysis

The rupturing of unstable plaques, formed by atherosclerosis, is the main factor contributing to the stroke event. According to stroke plays an important role for plaque stability and can be considered as important information to determine whether the patients need surgery or not. The main aim of this work is to determine the relationship that exists between plaque composition and arterial waveform for distinguishing stable and vulnerable plaques. An in-vitro experiment, representing the arterial system, is used to investigate the effect of the composition of the atherosclerosis on the propagation of the arterial waveforms. Different types of the artificial plaque, fabricated manually, were implemented into the artificial carotid artery. The pressure, velocity and arterial vessel wall movement were measured simultaneously proximal to the site of the arterial plaques. Wave intensity analysis (WIA) was used to separate the waves into forward and backward waves to identify how the plaque compositions will affect the reflected arterial waveforms. Our results indicated that stable plaques caused the stronger reflected waves, leading to the higher amplitude of the arterial diameter waveform. In general, this study demonstrated that the arterial waveforms are strongly associated with the compositions of the arterial plaques, implying the arterial waveform could provide the information to characterize the types of the plaques, then leading to a novel approach to stratify the atherosclerosis patients and determine if the interventional vascular surgery is needed. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.