Estimation of nonlinear mechanical properties of atherosclerotic plaques

Abstract

A numerical method has been developed to estimate the mechanical properties of atherosclerotic plaques by combining genetic algorithm with finite element methods. Plaque images derived from optical coherence tomography were employed to construct finite element models which were subsequently used in conjunction with a genetic algorithm to determine the parameters in a nonlinear constitutive model. A new multi-frame scheme is introduced to better perform the estimation on a nonlinear mechanical model and reduce the effects of noise. Results show while it is feasible to estimate the nonlinear mechanical properties of plaque, the accuracy can depend on various factors, especially the noise. KEY woRDS: FEM, atherosclerotic plaques, parameter estimation, Mooney-Rivlin model, optical coherence tomography, image noise.