Adaptive Estimation of Intravascular Shear Rate Based on Parameter Optimization

The relationships between the intravascular wall shear stress, controlled by flow dynamics, and the progress of arteriosclerosis plaque have been clarified by various studies. Since the shear stress is determined by the viscosity coefficient and shear rate, both factors must be estimated accurately. In this paper, an adaptive method for improving the accuracy of quantitative shear rate estimation was investigated. First, the parameter dependence of the estimated shear rate was investigated in terms of the differential window width and the number of averaged velocity profiles based on simulation and experimental data, and then the shear rate calculation was optimized. The optimized result revealed that the proposed adaptive method of shear rate estimation was effective for improving the accuracy of shear rate calculation.