title: Correlations between age, prestrain, diameter and atherosclerosis in the male abdominal aorta.
abstract: The longitudinal prestrain of arteries facilitates their physiological function. Remodeling, adaptation and aging result in an age-dependent magnitude of the pretension. Although the phenomenon is known, detailed statistics, especially for human arteries, are lacking. This study was designed to propose the regression model capable of estimating the prestrain of the human abdominal aorta. The length of the abdominal aorta before, l, and after excision from the body, L, the diameter, heart weight, thickness of left ventricle and degree of atherosclerosis were collected in autopsies of 156 male cadavers of known age. Longitudinal prestrain was quantified by means of the stretch ratio λ=l/L. Statistical analysis revealed significant dependence between age, prestrain, diameter and atherosclerosis, which were best fitted to the power law equation. Longitudinal prestretch reduced with age significantly; λmean=1.30±0.07 for age<30 (n=29), whereas λmean=1.06±0.03 for age>59 (n=31) with p-value<0.0001. Raw data gave linear correlation coefficients as follows: λ-age (R=-0.842); l-age (R=0.023); L-age (R=0.476); (l-L)-age (R=-0.811). It was concluded that longitudinal prestrain decreases nonlinearly with age and both age and diameter are suitable predictors of the prestrain. Data suggests that unloaded length elongates with age in contrast to the elastic retraction.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technicka 4, 166 07, Prague, Czech Republic. lukas.horny@fs.cvut.cz
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Horny
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Adamek
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gultova
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zitny
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vesely
authors.forename: Hynek
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chlup
authors.forename: Svatava
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Konvickova
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013314:Stress, Mechanical