A mathematical model of aortic aneurysm formation

PLoS One. 2017 Feb 17;12(2):e0170807. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170807. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a localized enlargement of the abdominal aorta, such that the diameter exceeds 3 cm. The natural history of AAA is progressive growth leading to rupture, an event that carries up to 90% risk of mortality. Hence there is a need to predict the growth of the diameter of the aorta based on the diameter of a patient's aneurysm at initial screening and aided by non-invasive biomarkers. IL-6 is overexpressed in AAA and was suggested as a prognostic marker for the risk in AAA. The present paper develops a mathematical model which relates the growth of the abdominal aorta to the serum concentration of IL-6. Given the initial diameter of the aorta and the serum concentration of IL-6, the model predicts the growth of the diameter at subsequent times. Such a prediction can provide guidance to how closely the patient's abdominal aorta should be monitored. The mathematical model is represented by a system of partial differential equations taking place in the aortic wall, where the media is assumed to have the constituency of an hyperelastic material.

MeSH terms

  • Aneurysm, Ruptured / metabolism
  • Aneurysm, Ruptured / pathology
  • Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / metabolism
  • Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / pathology*
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Interleukin-6 / metabolism
  • Models, Biological*
  • Risk

Substances

  • Interleukin-6

Grants and funding

WH was a postdoctoral researcher at Mathematical Biosciences Institute at the time of the study and received financial support from the institution. WH and AF received funding from the National Science Foundation under Grant 0931642. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.