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An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a typical aortic disease with serious complications. In clinical practice, the decision to intervene in treatment depends on the rupture risk of AAA. Therefore, monitoring the progression of the disease and accurately assessing the rupture risk is of great importance for its treatment. Studies have shown that the biomechanical indicators based on multi-scale models are more effective in accurately assessing the rupture risk of AAA. However, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate the biomechanical environment is a cumbersome and time-consuming process, which is inadequate to meet the needs of clinical monitoring and quick decisions. While the hemodynamic environment of AAA is heavily dependent on geometry, more and more biomechanics-related morphological parameters have been raised and validated. In this review, we summarized typical morphological parameters associated with AAA rupture and their relationships with the mechanical environment, including maximum diameter, deformation rate, saccular index, asymmetry, AAA volume, tortuosity, and intraluminal thrombus (ILT), providing a reference for clinical preoperative risk assessment. Clinical Impact: Studies have shown that the biomechanical indicators based on multi-scale models are more effective in accurately assessing the rupture risk of AAA. To meet the need for clinical monitoring and rapid decision making, the typical morphological parameters associated with AAA rupture and their relationships with the mechanical environment have been summarized, which provide a reference for clinical preoperative risk assessment of AAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) have a higher incidence of complications after Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), most of which are related to the migration of stent‐graft. The different force acting on the stent‐graft after EVAR caused by different abdominal artery anatomy of male and female AAA patients may be the reason for the sex‐different complications. This article aims to explore the possible biomechanical mechanisms of sex differences by making a comparison of displacement force acting on the stent graft of male and female AAA patients. To explore the effect of different vascular anatomy on stent‐graft migration, the uniformed models were constructed according to the specific vascular anatomy parameters of AAA patients of different sex, which have been measured before. The computational fluid dynamics method was used to quantitate the pulsatile force acting on the stent‐graft after EVAR in a cardiac cycle. Then the displacement force was calculated with the pressure and the wall shear stress, and the total and area‐weighted average of displacement force acting on the stent‐graft were compared respectively. In one cardiac cycle, the wall pressure for the male model is greater than that of the female model (2.7–4.4 vs. 2.2–3.4 N), and the wall shear force for the female model is slightly greater (0–0.0065 vs. 0–0.0055 N). The displacement force is mainly provided by the wall pressure, which is also greater in the male model. However, the area‐averaged displacement force is greater for the female model than that for the male model (180–290 vs. 160–250 Pa). Because of the different vascular anatomies, the impact caused by the pulsating aortic blood flow on the AAA stent‐graft of women after EVAR was greater than that of men. Women's vascular anatomy leads to greater area‐averaged displacement force after stent‐graft implantation, resulting in a greater risk of stent‐graft migration, which might be one of the reasons why women had a higher incidence of complications after EVAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the effect of rotor design configuration on hemodynamic features, hemocompatibility and dynamic balance of blood pumps. Computational fluid dynamics was employed to investigate the effects of rotor type (closed impeller, semi‐open impeller), clearance height and back vanes on blood pump performance. In particular, the Eulerian hemolysis model based on a power‐law function and the Lagrangian thrombus model with integrated stress accumulation and residence time were applied to evaluate the hemocompatibility of the blood pump. This study shows that compared to the closed impeller, the semi‐open impeller can improve hemolysis at a slight sacrifice in head pressure, but increase the risk of thrombogenic potential and disrupt rotor dynamic balance. For the semi‐open impeller, the pressure head, hemolysis, and axial thrust of the blood pump decrease with increasing front clearance, and the risk of thrombosis increases first and then decreases with increasing front clearance. Variations in back clearance have little effect on pressure head, but larger on back clearance, worsens hemolysis, thrombogenic potential and rotor dynamic balance. The employment of back vanes has little effect on the pressure head. All back vanes configurations have an increased risk of hemolysis in the blood pump but are beneficial for the improvement of the rotor dynamic balance of the blood pump. Reasonable back vanes configuration (higher height, wider width, longer length and more number) decreases the flow separation, increases the velocity of blood in the back clearance, and reduces the risk of blood pooling and thrombosis. It was also found that hemolysis index (HI) was highly negatively correlated with pressure difference between the top and back clearances (r = −.87), and thrombogenic potential was positively correlated with pressure difference between the top and back clearances (r =.71). This study found that rotor type, clearance height, and back vanes significantly affect the hydraulic performance, hemocompatibility and rotor dynamic balance of centrifugal blood pumps through secondary flow. These parameters should be carefully selected when designing and optimizing centrifugal blood pumps for improving the blood pump clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The centrifugal blood pump volute has a significant impact on its hemodynamic performance hemocompatibility. Previous studies about the effect of volute design features on the performance of blood pumps are relatively few. Methods: In the present study, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was utilized to evaluate the impact of volute design factors, including spiral start position, volute tongue radius, inlet height, size, shape and diffuser pipe angle on the hemolysis index and thrombogenic potential of the centrifugal blood pump. Results: Correlation analysis shows that flow losses affect the hemocompatibility of the blood pump by influencing shear stress and residence time. The closer the spiral start position of the volute, the better the hydraulic performance and hemocompatibility of the blood pump. Too large or too small volute inlet heights can worsen hydraulic performance and hemolysis, and higher volute inlet height can increase the thrombogenic potential. Small volute sizes exacerbate hemolysis and large volute sizes increase the thrombogenic risk, but volute size does not affect hydraulic performance. When the diffuser pipe is tangent to the base circle of the volute, the best hydraulic performance and hemolysis performance of the blood pump is achieved, but the thrombogenic potential is increased. The trapezoid volute has poor hydraulic performance and hemocompatibility. The round volute has the best hydraulic and hemolysis performance, but the thrombogenic potential is higher than that of the rectangle volute. Conclusion: This study found that the hemolysis index shows a significant correlation with spiral start position, volute size, and diffuser pipe angle. Thrombogenic potential exhibits a good correlation with all the studied volute design features. The flow losses affect the hemocompatibility of the blood pump by influencing shear stress and residence time. The finding of this study can be used to guide the optimization of blood pump for improving the hemodynamic performance and hemocompatibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation time is a crucial factor in evaluating the performance of poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) stents. Bulk degradation mode was commonly used to analyze the stent degradation behavior by finite element approach. However, the PLGA stents may present surface degradation more than bulk degradation under certain conditions, which will greatly affect the degradation time after implantation. In this study, the degradation processes of the poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) stent were reproduced utilizing finite element analysis. Both bulk degradation and surface degradation modes were considered. The correlation between tensile stress and degradation rate was investigated. The degradation time was analyzed selectively. The stress distribution, fracture, and mass loss were also compared between bulk degradation mode and surface degradation mode. The simulation results showed that, in both evolution modes, the degradation began at the 'peak-valley' region and fracture occurred at the cross of links and rings. Additionally, high levels of Von-Mises stress were observed in these two regions. Compared with bulk degradation, the fracture time of the stent was delayed by 63% in the surface degradation mode. In conclusion, the mass loss rate and scaffolding period showed great differences between surface degradation and bulk degradation. Based on this study, it is suggested that bulk degradation mode is not applicable to the case of inadequate water uptake mode, such as the tracheal stent degradation process. More experimental research should be carried out to accurately predict the scaffolding period after implantation. The mechanical properties of the fracture zone should be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 48.0% of all deaths in Europe and 34.3% in the United States. Studies have shown that arterial stiffness takes precedence over vascular structural changes and is therefore considered to be an independent predictor of many cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, the characteristics of Korotkoff signal is related to vascular compliance. The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility of detecting vascular stiffness based on the characteristics of Korotkoff signal. First, the Korotkoff signals of normal and stiff vessels were collected and preprocessed. Then the scattering features of Korotkoff signal were extracted by wavelet scattering network. Next, the long short-term memory (LSTM) network was established as a classification model to classify the normal and stiff vessels according to the scattering features. Finally, the performance of the classification model was evaluated by some parameters, such as accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. In this study, 97 cases of Korotkoff signal were collected, including 47 cases from normal vessels and 50 cases from stiff vessels, which were divided into training set and test set according to the ratio of 8 : 2. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the final classification model was 86.4%, 92.3% and 77.8%, respectively. At present, non-invasive screening method for vascular stiffness is very limited. The results of this study show that the characteristics of Korotkoff signal are affected by vascular compliance, and it is feasible to use the characteristics of Korotkoff signal to detect vascular stiffness. This study might be providing a new idea for non-invasive detection of vascular stiffness.