摘要
The ability to reliably detect coronary artery disease based on the acousticnoises produced by a stenosis can provide a simple, non-invasive technique for diagnosis.Current research exploits the shear wave fields in body tissue to detect andanalyze coronary stenoses. The methods and ideas outlined in earlier efforts [6] includinga mathematical model utilizing an internal strain variable approximation tothe quasi-linear viscoelastic constitutive equation proposed by Fung in [19] is extendedhere. As an initial investigation, a homogeneous two-dimensional viscoelastic geometryis considered. Being uniform in θ, this geometry behaves as a one dimensionalmodel, and the results generated from it are compared to the one dimensional resultsfrom [6]. To allow for different assumptions on the elastic response, several variationsof the model are considered. A statistical significance test is employed to determine ifthe more complex models are significant improvements. After calibrating the modelwith a comparison to previous findings, more complicated geometries are considered.Simulations involving a heterogeneous geometrywith a uniformring running throughthe original medium, a θ-dependent model which considers a rigid partial occlusionformed along the inner radius of the geometry, and a model which combines the ringand occlusion are presented.
基金
the U.S.Air Force Office of Scientific Research under grant AFOSR-FA9550-04-1-0220 and in part by The David and Lucille Packard Foundation.
