Modeling of Plaque Progression in the Carotid Artery Using Coupled Agent Based with Finite Element Method

In study, we presented a new computational model for atheromatic plaque growth progression in the carotid artery using specialized mathematical models and computational simulations which will enable the accurate prediction of the cardiovascular disease evolution. The simulated model with coupled Agent Based Method (ABM) and Finite Element Method (FEM) has been presented. The ABM was coupled with an initial WSS profile, which triggers a pathologic vascular remodeling by perturbing the baseline cellular activity and favoring lipid infiltration and accumulation within the arterial wall. The ABM model takes shear stress and LDL initial distribution from the lumen and starts iterative calculation inside the wall for lipid infiltration and accumulation using a random number generator for each time step. After ABM iterations, both wall lipid distribution and wall geometry are changed. This directly influences the wall artery geometry which is also modeled with finite element, with ABM elements inside these large finite elements. Then, fluid-structure solver is running and lumen domain is calculated again. The change of the shape of the cross-sections of the arterial wall is shown in three specific moments in time (baseline, after 3 months and after 6 months). One main pros of this new approach are the use of realistic 3D reconstructed artery providing in this way a more realistic, patient-specific simulation of plaque progression.