Does the principle of minimum work apply at the carotid bifurcation: a retrospective cohort study

BMC Medical Imaging

Research Article

James E Hilton¹  Matthew D Sinnott¹  Winston Chong²  Mandy Ren³  Gita Das³  Velandai Srikanth⁴  Richard J Beare⁵  Thanh G Phan⁶ 

[1] CSIRO Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics, Melbourne, Australia;Department of Radiology, Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Australia;Stroke and Aging Research Group, Department of Medicine, Monash University, Australia;Stroke and Aging Research Group, Department of Medicine, Monash University, Australia;Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia;Stroke and Aging Research Group, Department of Medicine, Monash University, Australia;Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia;Stroke and Aging Research Group, Department of Medicine, Monash University, Australia;Stroke Unit, Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne, Australia;

关键词: Carotid Artery;    Internal Carotid Artery;    Wall Sheer Stress;    External Carotid Artery;    Carotid Bifurcation;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2342-11-17

 received in 2011-05-03, accepted in 2011-08-24,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThere is recent interest in the role of carotid bifurcation anatomy, geometry and hemodynamic factors in the pathogenesis of carotid artery atherosclerosis. Certain anatomical and geometric configurations at the carotid bifurcation have been linked to disturbed flow. It has been proposed that vascular dimensions are selected to minimize energy required to maintain blood flow, and that this occurs when an exponent of 3 relates the radii of parent and daughter arteries. We evaluate whether the dimensions of bifurcation of the extracranial carotid artery follow this principle of minimum work.MethodsThis study involved subjects who had computed tomographic angiography (CTA) at our institution between 2006 and 2007. Radii of the common, internal and external carotid arteries were determined. The exponent was determined for individual bifurcations using numerical methods and for the sample using nonlinear regression.ResultsMean age for 45 participants was 56.9 ± 16.5 years with 26 males. Prevalence of vascular risk factors was: hypertension-48%, smoking-23%, diabetes-16.7%, hyperlipidemia-51%, ischemic heart disease-18.7%.The value of the exponent ranged from 1.3 to 1.6, depending on estimation methodology.ConclusionsThe principle of minimum work (defined by an exponent of 3) may not apply at the carotid bifurcation. Additional factors may play a role in the relationship between the radii of the parent and daughter vessels.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Beare et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.