Elsevier

Medical Hypotheses

Volume 55, Issue 6, December 2000, Pages 480-484
Medical Hypotheses

Regular Article
Atherosclerotic plaque rupture: a fatigue process?

https://doi.org/10.1054/mehy.2000.1096Get rights and content

Abstract

The mechanism of atherosclerotic plaque rupture is not known. Current theories focus on the acute triggers of plaque rupture and myocardial infarction such as increased shear or circumferential stress, rupture of the vasa vasorum and vasospasm. We hypothesize that a critical mechanism causing plaque rupture is fatigue failure, the catastrophic rupture of a material following exposure to high-cycle, low-amplitude repetitive stress. Comparisons between material fatigue and plaque rupture demonstrate that this hypothesis is consistent with known physiologic and epidemiologic data on plaque rupture.

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