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Session: Vascular I
Session starts: Thursday 26 January, 14:30
Presentation starts: 15:45
Room: Room 559

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Behrooz Fereidoonnezhad (TU Delft)
Anushree Dwivedi ()
Ray McCarthy ()
Patrick McGarry ()

Abstract:
Thrombus (blood clot) fragmentation during endovascular stroke treatment, such as mechanical thrombectomy, leads to downstream emboli resulting in poor clinical outcomes. Understanding the fracture behaviour of blood clot is crucial for development of next-generation thrombectomy devices and clinical strategies. In this presentation, I will talk about our recent findings on blood clot fracture. A novel hyperelastic model has been developed to replicate the mechanical behaviour of blood clots in tension and compression. Inverse finite element method and cohesive zone modelling (CZM) have been used to characterise the mixed-mode fracture behaviour of blood clots from the experimental data of compact tension fracture test and lap-shear test. Platelet-contracted and non-contracted blood clot analogues with different compositions have been tested and role of clot contractility and clot composition on the mechanical and fracture behaviour of blood clots have been investigated. The results of this study reveal that fracture resistance of blood clots has a direct relationship with the amount of fibrin fibres and level of platelet contraction. The fracture strength of fibrin-rich clots is significantly higher than RBC-rich clots. Clot contraction has been found to have a significant influence on fracture behaviour of blood clots, highlighting the key role of platelets on fracture resistance of blood clot. Finite element cohesive zone modelling of clot fracture experiments show that rupture resistance in mode II fracture is higher than mode I. This implies that blood clots are more prone to fragment in mode I than mode II. These findings have key importance for design of the next-generation devices for endovascular treatment of stroke patients.