2023, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (26): 4208-4213

Detection technology of mechanical properties of the arterial wall

Jiang Songsong, Wang Cheng, Chen Shijiu   

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Vascular transplantation is a hot research topic in vascular surgery at present. However, the detection of mechanical properties of preserved vascular wall needs to be solved urgently.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the techniques used by researchers to study arterial wall mechanics and the problems faced in this research direction.
METHODS: The first author searched CNKI, WanFang, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases for relevant literature published from 2016 to 2022. The Chinese search terms were “aortic blood vessel, arterial wall, mechanics, elasticity, detection method” and the English search terms were “aortic vessels, arterial walls, mechanical model, elastic structure, mechanical testing.” The relevant literature about the distribution of mechanical structure of aortic blood vessel walls and relevant detection methods were retrieved. Finally, 54 articles regarding mechanical and micromechanical testing were induced for review.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The arterial wall is characterized by complex microstructure, which affects the mechanical properties of vascular tissue. The main components include collagen and elastin fibers, proteoglycans, vascular smooth muscle cells, and matrix. These components are often damaged during cryopreservation. Among them, vascular smooth muscle cells play a key role in the active mechanical response of the arteries, and collagen and elastin determine the passive mechanical response. After the treatment of vascular grafts, the technologies of detecting vascular wall skeleton damage still need to be further explored or summarized to obtain a set of more accurate methods, so as to evaluate vascular wall skeleton damage in multiple dimensions and help in the screening of clinical vascular graft treatment schemes.

Key words: arterial microstructure, stress and strain, vessel wall active mechanical properties, vessel wall passive mechanical properties, mechanical model, mechanical testing, micromechanical testing, review