@Article{Sáez2014,
author="S{\'a}ez, Pablo
and Pe{\~{n}}a, Estefania
and Mart{\'i}nez, Miguel Angel
and Kuhl, Ellen",
title="Computational modeling of hypertensive growth in the human carotid artery",
journal="Computational Mechanics",
year="2014",
volume="53",
number="6",
pages="1183--1196",
abstract="Arterial hypertension is a chronic medical condition associated with an elevated blood pressure. Chronic arterial hypertension initiates a series of events, which are known to collectively initiate arterial wall thickening. However, the correlation between macrostructural mechanical loading, microstructural cellular changes, and macrostructural adaptation remains unclear. Here, we present a microstructurally motivated computational model for chronic arterial hypertension through smooth muscle cell growth. To model growth, we adopt a classical concept based on the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into an elastic part and a growth part. Motivated by clinical observations, we assume that the driving force for growth is the stretch sensed by the smooth muscle cells. We embed our model into a finite element framework, where growth is stored locally as an internal variable. First, to demonstrate the features of our model, we investigate the effects of hypertensive growth in a real human carotid artery. Our results agree nicely with experimental data reported in the literature both qualitatively and quantitatively.",
issn="1432-0924",
doi="10.1007/s00466-013-0959-z",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00466-013-0959-z"
}