title: In vivo determination of elastic properties of the human aorta based on 4D ultrasound data.
abstract: Computational analysis of the biomechanics of the vascular system aims at a better understanding of its physiology and pathophysiology. To be of clinical use, however, these models and thus their predictions, have to be patient specific regarding geometry, boundary conditions and material. In this paper we present an approach to determine individual material properties of human aortae based on a new type of in vivo full field displacement data acquired by dimensional time resolved three dimensional ultrasound (4D-US) imaging. We developed a nested iterative Finite Element Updating method to solve two coupled inverse problems: The prestrains that are present in the imaged diastolic configuration of the aortic wall are determined. The solution of this problem is integrated in an iterative method to identify the nonlinear hyperelastic anisotropic material response of the aorta to physiologic deformation states. The method was applied to 4D-US data sets of the abdominal aorta of five healthy volunteers and verified by a numerical experiment. This non-invasive in vivo technique can be regarded as a first step to determine patient individual material properties of the human aorta.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Goethe University, Max-von-Laue-Strasse 13, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wittek
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karatolios
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bihari
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schmitz-Rixen
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moosdorf
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vogt
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blase
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001011:Aorta / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004548:Elasticity; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014463:Ultrasonography
keywords: 3-Dimensional ultrasound imaging; 4D-US; Abdominal aorta; Anisotropic hyperelastic; BC; BM; EM; FEU; Finite Element Updating method; Finite element updating method; In vivo; SEF; Vascular mechanics; benchmark model; boundary condition; estimation model; strain energy function; three dimensional time resolved ultrasound