Obiettivo Stroke is the second leading cause of mortality worldwide. Most stroke events are triggered by an atherosclerotic plaque rupture in a carotid artery. Current clinical decisions for the carotid plaque removal surgery are made without assessing the plaque rupture risk as no reliable means exists today. Biomechanics can help to develop such risk assessment tools; yet, the fundamental knowledge on biomechanical descriptors of plaque rupture is missing.This project aims to provide biomechanical characteristics of atherosclerotic plaque rupture. This will be done by combining experimental work, high-end plaque imaging and computational modeling. First, non-existing biomechanical plaque rupture data will be collected from a novel experimental approach of physiological, ex-vivo inflation/rupture tests with atherosclerotic human carotid arteries. The pre-rupture and rupture strain distributions in plaques during the tests will be assessed in 3D via a cutting-edge high frequency ultrasound technique. With a novel inverse finite element (FE) technique, heterogeneous material properties of the plaques will be identified. This unique material information will be used in plaque-specific FE models to compute 3D pre-rupture and rupture stress distributions in the plaques. The assessed plaque strain and stress fingerprints will be evaluated for their predictive value of plaque rupture. The essential knowledge on biomechanical characteristics of plaque rupture will aid making more accurate surgical treatment decisions to prevent stroke-related mortality and morbidity. Besides the high-impact research, this fellowship will also result in enhancement of the applicant’s skill set through the valuable training on ultrasound imaging, histology and pathomorphology examination. Furthermore, the fellowship will allow him to return to the EU research environment, and bring back his expertise in tissue experimentation and modeling, and advanced FE analysis. Campo scientifico medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologymedical and health sciencesclinical medicinecardiologycardiovascular diseasesarteriosclerosismedical and health sciencesclinical medicinesurgerysurgical proceduresmedical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologystrokenatural sciencesbiological sciencesbiophysics Programma(i) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Argomento(i) MSCA-IF-2016 - Individual Fellowships Invito a presentare proposte H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 Vedi altri progetti per questo bando Meccanismo di finanziamento MSCA-IF-EF-RI - RI – Reintegration panel Coordinatore ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAM Contribution nette de l'UE € 165 598,80 Indirizzo DR MOLEWATERPLEIN 40 3015 GD Rotterdam Paesi Bassi Mostra sulla mappa Regione West-Nederland Zuid-Holland Groot-Rijnmond Tipo di attività Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Collegamenti Contatta l’organizzazione Opens in new window Sito web Opens in new window Partecipazione a programmi di R&I dell'UE Opens in new window Rete di collaborazione HORIZON Opens in new window Costo totale € 165 598,80