title: Passive biomechanical properties of human cadaveric levator ani muscle at low strains.
abstract: The objective of this study was to measure and model the passive biomechanics of cadaveric levator ani muscle in the fiber direction at low strains with a moderately slow deformation rate. Nine levator ani samples, extracted from female cadavers aged 64 to 96 years, underwent preconditioning and uniaxial biomechanical analysis on a tensile testing apparatus after the original width, thickness, and length were measured. The load extension data and measured dimensions were used to calculate stress-strain curves for each sample. The resulting stress-strain curves up to 10% strain were fit to four different constitutive models to determine which model was most appropriate for the data. A power-law model with two parameters was found to fit the data most accurately. Constitutive parameters did not correlate significantly with age in this study; this may be because all of the cadavers were postmenopausal.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA.
authors.forename: Anna S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Nagle
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls, SD, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Good Samaritan Hospital, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Steven D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Kleeman
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA.
authors.forename: Balakrishna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Haridas
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA. Electronic address: doug.mast@uc.edu.
authors.forename: T Douglas
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Mast
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D017773:Pelvic Floor / Q000502:physiology*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
keywords: Constitutive model; Levator ani muscle; Passive behavior of skeletal muscle tissue; Pelvic floor; Uniaxial extension