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Session: Poster session 2 (Odd numbers)
Session starts: Friday 27 January, 10:00
Presentation starts: 10:00

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Rachel Cahalane ()
Janneke Cruts ()
Ahlam Rachid ()
Kim van Gaalen ()
Heleen van Beusekom ()
Moniek de Maat ()
Marcel Dijkshoorn ()
Nikki Boodt ()
Aad van der Lugt ()
Frank Gijsen ()

Abstract:
Background Acute ischemic stroke is caused by a thrombus that blocks an intracranial artery. The efficiency of a thrombus removal procedure is thought to be influenced by the thrombus mechanical properties, which are known to be affected by both the thrombus composition and contraction. Computed tomography (CT) could be a suitable modality to assess thrombus properties prior to the intervention.[1] We examine the imaging characteristics and mechanical properties of clot analogues with different compositions and levels of contraction. Methods Clot analogues were made from citrated whole blood of six healthy human donors. Clots were made with five different red blood cell (RBC) volumes: 0, 25, 77, 94 and 99%, which span the range of compositions from ex vivo thrombi. Also, clots were made with three different platelet concentrations: 30*103, 90*103, and 270*103 platelets/μL, which result in a low, medium and high level of contraction, respectively. Clinical CT imaging was performed to measure the density. Perviousness, which reflects the clot’s permeability, was quantified by measuring the density after the administration of a contrast agent. Unconfined compression tests were performed and the high strain stiffness was obtained from the slope of the stress-strain curves at 75-80% strain. Results The compressive stiffness was highest for the highly contracted clots and lowest for the low contracted clots. Significant differences in stiffness were also observed between RBC volume groups within the high and medium contracted clot groups. For the first time we demonstrated that higher levels of contraction increase the CT density values. As expected, the density values were higher for increasing RBC volume. Highly contracted clots tended to have higher perviousness values compared with medium and low contracted clots. There was only a significant difference in perviousness between the RBC volume groups within the highly contracted clot group. Conclusion Clot compressive stiffness and CT density are dependent on the level of contraction and RBC content. The perviousness appears to increase with increasing level of contraction, but is only affected by RBC content in highly contracted clots.