title: Do cardiac aneurysms blow out?
abstract: The possibility is suggested that cardiac aneurysms are formed when an infarcted region of the ventricular wall becomes elastically unstable and "blows out". The consequence of such a blowout could be a large saccular aneurysm or even cardiac rupture. We use a nonlinear stress-strain relation capable of describing both the passive and active myocardial wall to examine this possibility in terms of large-deformation membrane theory. Ventricular infarcts made of a material having physical properties like rubber would be expected to blow out, but those made of passive myocardium would not.
mesh_terms: D004548:Elasticity; D006322:Heart Aneurysm / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008954:Models, Biological; D009200:Myocardial Contraction
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial
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