000150475 001__ 150475 000150475 005__ 20251017144546.0 000150475 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1177/0954411913479530 000150475 0248_ $$2sideral$$a82571 000150475 037__ $$aART-2013-82571 000150475 041__ $$aeng 000150475 100__ $$0(orcid)0000-0002-8503-9291$$aCilla, M.$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000150475 245__ $$aDoes microcalcification increase the risk of rupture? 000150475 260__ $$c2013 000150475 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted 000150475 5203_ $$aRupture of atherosclerotic plaque, which is related to maximal stress conditions in the plaque among others, is a major cause of mortality. More careful examination of stress distributions in atherosclerotic plaques reports that it could be due to local stress behaviors at critical sites caused by cap thinning, inflammation, macroscopic heterogeneity, and recently, the presence of microcalcifications. However, the role of microcalcifications is not yet fully understood, and most finite element models of blood vessels with atheroma plaque ignore the heterogeneity of the plaque constituents at the microscale. The goal of this work is to investigate the effect of microcalcifications on the stress field of an atheroma plaque vessel section. This is achieved by performing a parametric finite element study, assuming a plane strain hypothesis, of a coronary artery section with eccentric atheroma plaque and one microcalcification incorporated. The geometrical parameters used to define and design the idealized coronary plaque anatomy and the microcalcification were the fibrous cap thickness and the microcalcification ratio, angle and eccentricity. We could conclude that microcalcifications should be considered in the modeling of this kind of problems since they cause a significant alteration of the vulnerable risk by increasing the maximum maximal principal stress up to 32%, although this increase of stress is not uniform (12% on average). The obtained results show that the fibrous cap thickness, the microcalcification ratio and the microcalcification eccentricity, in combination with the microcalcification angle, appear to be the key morphological parameters that play a determinant role in the maximal principal stress and accordingly in the rupture risk of the plaque. 000150475 536__ $$9info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/DPI2010-20746-C03-01 000150475 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aAll rights reserved$$uhttp://www.europeana.eu/rights/rr-f/ 000150475 590__ $$a1.144$$b2013 000150475 591__ $$aENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL$$b53 / 75 = 0.707$$c2013$$dQ3$$eT3 000150475 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion 000150475 700__ $$aMonterde, D. 000150475 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0002-0664-5024$$aPena, E.$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000150475 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0002-8375-0354$$aMartinez, M. A.$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000150475 7102_ $$15004$$2605$$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bDpto. Ingeniería Mecánica$$cÁrea Mec.Med.Cont. y Teor.Est. 000150475 773__ $$g227, 5 (2013), 588-599$$pProc. Inst. Mech. Eng., H J. eng. med.$$tPROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PART H-JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE$$x0954-4119 000150475 8564_ $$s8665471$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/150475/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yPostprint 000150475 8564_ $$s2740989$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/150475/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yPostprint 000150475 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:150475$$particulos$$pdriver 000150475 951__ $$a2025-10-17-14:09:42 000150475 980__ $$aARTICLE