Correlations between age, prestrain, diameter and atherosclerosis in the male abdominal aorta

• Published in: Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 2011-11, Vol.4 (8), p.2128-2132
• Main Authors: Horny, Lukas, Adamek, Tomas, Gultova, Eva, Zitny, Rudolf, Vesely, Jan, Chlup, Hynek, Konvickova, Svatava
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdominal aorta; Aging; Aging - physiology; Aorta, Abdominal - pathology; Aorta, Abdominal - physiopathology; Atherosclerosis; Atherosclerosis - physiopathology; Elasticity; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Prestrain; Regression Analysis; Stress, Mechanical
• ISSN: 1751-6161; 1878-0180
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2011.07.011

The longitudinal prestrain of arteries facilitates their physiological function. Remodeling, adaptation and aging result in an age-dependent magnitude of the pretension. Although the phenomenon is known, detailed statistics, especially for human arteries, are lacking. This study was designed to propose the regression model capable of estimating the prestrain of the human abdominal aorta. The length of the abdominal aorta before, l, and after excision from the body, L, the diameter, heart weight, thickness of left ventricle and degree of atherosclerosis were collected in autopsies of 156 male cadavers of known age. Longitudinal prestrain was quantified by means of the stretch ratio λ=l/L. Statistical analysis revealed significant dependence between age, prestrain, diameter and atherosclerosis, which were best fitted to the power law equation. Longitudinal prestretch reduced with age significantly; λmean=1.30±0.07 for age 59 (n=31) with p-value