Vascular functions are affected by wall shear stresses (WSS) applied on the endothelial cells (EC), as well as by the interactions of the EC with the adjacent smooth muscle cells (SMC). The present study was designed to investigate the effects of WSS on the endothelial interactions with its surroundings. For this purpose we developed and constructed two co-culture models of EC and SMC, and comp...

Arterial wall shear stress (WSS) parameters are widely used for prediction of the initiation and development of atherosclerosis and arterial pathologies. Traditional clinical evaluation of arterial condition relies on correlations of WSS parameters with average flow rate (Q) and heart rate (HR) measurements. We show that for pulsating flow waveforms in a straight tube with flow reversals that l...

In this study, large-eddy simulation (LES) is employed to calculate the disturbed flow field and the wall shear stress (WSS) in a subject specific human aorta. Velocity and geometry measurements using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are taken as input to the model to provide accurate boundary conditions and to assure the physiological relevance. In total, 50 consecutive cardiac cycles were sim...

The endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) is one of the mediators of smooth muscle (SM) relaxation. The release of NO by endothelium depends on the wall shear stress (WSS) to which endothelium is exposed. During hemodilution or isovolemic exchange transfusion with hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) or volume expanders, the systemic hematocrit, blood viscosity, and blood flow rate are affe...

Flow impingement at arterial bifurcations causes high frictional force [or wall shear stress (WSS)], and flow acceleration and deceleration in the branches create positive and negative streamwise gradients in WSS (WSSG), respectively. Intracranial aneurysms tend to form in regions with high WSS and positive WSSG. However, little is known about the responses of endothelial cells (ECs) to either ...

Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales are one of the most used measuring instruments for the assessment of psychometric risk for psychosis. The main goal of the present study was to analyze the internal structure of the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief (WSS-B) forms and the reliability of the scores in a large sample of college students. The final sample was comprised by a total of 1349 students, 288 ma...

Stent sizing and apposition have been shown to be important determinants of clinical outcome. This study evaluates the mechanical effects of undersizing and oversizing of stents on endothelial wall shear stress (WSS) and vessel wall stress to determine a possible biomechanical mechanism of in-stent restenosis and thrombosis. Three-dimensional computational models of stents, artery, and internal...

INTRODUCTION: Vascular wall shear stress (WSS) is believed to play a critical role in the processes of atherosclerosis[1,2]. WSS could be used to assess vascular disease initiation and proliferation processes. Advancement of PC-MRA technique enabled in vivo evaluation of arterial WSS. However, MR velocity measurements are more sensitive to partial volume effects (PVE) on edge pixels, especially...

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of non-Newtonian blood rheology models on the wall shear stress (WSS) distribution in a cohort of patients-specific coronary arteries. Twenty patients with diseased left anterior descending (LAD) coronary arteries (with varying degrees of stenosis severity from mild to severe) who underwent angiography and in-vivo pressure measurements were se...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether there is an increased prevalence of systemic autoimmune diseases in both patients with white spot syndromes (WSS) and their family members. METHODS Patients with WSS at participating institutions were asked to complete a questionnaire reporting their own medical histories as well as any autoimmune diseases among their first- and second-degree relatives. RESULT...