Development of time dependent biomechanical models for vascular tissue and implant design optimization

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Atherosclerotic diseases are amongst the principal causes of death in North America. The rupture of vascular tissue is a common phenomenon associated with several end-stage cardiovascular diseases including coronary disease which can cause myocardial infarction or heart attacks, aorta rupture and aorta dissection possibly leading to hemorrhage. Currently physicians are using simple diameter measurements to estimate the severity of the disease. These measures were proven to be imprecise. Researchers have recently proposed new criteria based on engineering principles to better assess these diseases. However, even these new indices cannot account for all observed adverse events. For example, for coronary disease the new criteria cannot account for about 30 % of the adverse events. There is thus a need for better criteria suited for these complex soft tissues that exhibit large deformations like rubber. I investigated, in the last years, a new approach based on the understanding of how cracks can happen and progress in such soft tissue for a complementary assessment of the risk of tissue rupture. The research program will allow to better understand how, under what conditions and when these soft tissues fail which can lead to adverse events like heart attacks and hemorrhage. The new knowledge acquired about how the native tissue normally deform will also be used to design the next generation of implants that can also deform in the same way in order to better interact with the body. Similarly, the information will also be used for developing medical imaging techniques for an improved non-invasive assessment of the state of the tissue. These new diagnostic and treatment strategies should have important impact as a large number of the population is affected by these medical conditions.