Keywords
Clinical Conditions
Equipment & Techniques
Atherosclerotic plaques are multi-component structures composed of a lipid core, calcium or haemorrhage enclosed by a fibrous cap, which can be captured by MRI. The rupture of atherosclerotic plaques is responsible for most clinical symptoms of heart attack and stroke. Evidence has shown the correlation between compositional features and plaque vulnerability. Moreover, plaques are subject to mechanical loading due to blood pressure and flow. The rupture possibly occurs if such loading exceeds its material strength. Therefore, critical mechanical conditions should be integrated with compositional features for an accurate vulnerability assessment. We focus on: 1) development of MR sequences 2) mechanical analysis using structure-only, CFD and FSI simulation 3) image processing 4) clinical studies to assess the risk of various compositional features and critical mechanical conditions 5) the pathological impact of stress/stretch concentration at cellular, molecular and genetic levels.
Imaging based radiomics and haemodynamics analyses
