Developing a new method to predict plaques likely to rupture

Finite element analysis and imaging to predict human atherosclerotic plaque growth and progression to instability

In this Clinical Research Training Fellowship supervised by BHF Professor Martin Bennett, the fellow is working out how to predict which atherosclerotic plaques are most likely to rupture, leading to heart attacks and strokes. Atherosclerosis occurs when fatty plaques build up in the inner wall of blood vessels. The Cambridge team has found that techniques such as virtual histology intravascular ultrasound (VH-IVUS) reliably identify high risk plaques that are likely to rupture. But less than ten per cent of these lead to heart attacks and strokes, suggesting we need better techniques that detect high risk plaques. The team has developed a new technique to measure the stress inside plaques. They found that this technique identifies higher stress in high-risk regions in plaques of people with unstable coronary artery disease. In this project, the researchers will test whether measuring stress using this technique can predict whether plaques grow or remain silent or whether they rupture. They will compare the accuracy of this new technique with current techniques such as VH-IVUS. This research will find out if measures of plaque stress can predict a person’s risk of heart attacks. If successful, it could form the basis of a new screening tool to identify plaques at high risk of rupture.