Authors: Hamed Azarnoush, Guy Lamouche, Charles-Etienne Bisaillon, Christian Degrandpre, Benoit Boulet

Description: We report evaluation of a technique that may be applied to estimate the compliance of atherosclerotic intima. This estimation can help in identification of the type of plaque. It can also be applied in our finite element software, developed to simulate coronary angioplasty. The software accepts segmented intravascular ultrasound images together with each segment’s material characteristics. It then simulates the response of the diseased artery, to help choose optimal balloons or stents and also to improve the pressurization strategy. The technique is based on formulating the compliance of two materials in series. A two-layer and two single-layer phantoms were produced to verify the validity of this formulation in practice. The outer layer of the two-layer phantom is chosen with characteristics similar to a real artery. The harder inner layer imitates the intimal thickening. A balloon deployment testing machine, non …