Artery as a pressure vessel: correlation between stress concentration and pathology

Heart attack and stroke are often the consequences of diseases of the artery. Generally, the diseases can be classified as atherosclerosis or aneurysm and both of them occur most frequently at artery branches, bifurcations, and curvatures. To understand the mechanism of these diseases we investigated the mechanical and biological aspects related to the arterial wall stress induced by luminal pressure. We observed that the stresses were concentrated and the strains were increased at the branch region. Endothelial cell morphology, vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, arterial permeability and atherosclerotic lesions were all influenced by stresses and strains. The arterial diseases appeared to mimic cumulative damage to the artery from the stress concentration and fatigue. Hence, the study of the artery as a pressure vessel is very important in addressing heart attack and stroke.