Plaque rupture - Wave approach and resonance hypothesis

Sudden heart attacks and cerebral strokes remain one of the primary causes of mortality and morbidity in the developed world. These acute cerebral and cardiac ischemic events (acute vascular syndromes) are commonly associated with a rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque in a large artery and subsequent thrombosis. Thus, great attention of vascular physicians is being given to predicting a plaque rupture. Nevertheless, there are grave shortcomings of the current approach to a rupture and its predictions. This study, on the background of the plaque rupture paradigm summary, presents a new interpretation of a plaque rupture using a wave approach and the resonance hypothesis that a rupture is caused by the flow induced nonlinear resonance of a plaque. To support the hypothesis the waveforms of plaque surface micrometer vibrations in a wide frequency range from 20 Hz up to 500 Hz obtained by means of finite elements (FE) and flow-structure interaction (FSI) simulation are introduced for the first time. The vibration analysis, evidence of its nonlinearity and comparison with the published data are proposed.