Correlation between compression, tensile and tearing tests on healthy and calcified aortic tissues

Abstract

An anastomosis performed in calcified tissues tears up faster than in healthy tissues. This study develops and validates an in vitro non-destructive method to distinguish healthy from calcified aortic tissues. An uniaxial unconfined compression test is able to distinguish healthy from calcified aortas ( p < 0.01 ). The compressive E-modulus at a strain level of 10% is 227 ± 34 kPa for artificially calcified and 147 ± 15 kPa for healthy porcine aortic tissues. Calcified aortic tissues have a lower tensile strength than healthy porcine aortic tissues ( p < 0.05 ). The ultimate tensile strength is 1.34 ± 0.18 MPa and 1.55 ± 0.31 MPa for artificially calcified and healthy porcine aortic tissues respectively. Calcified aortic tissues have a lower resistance to tearing than healthy aortic tissues ( p < 0.05 ). The resistance to tearing is 1.78 ± 0.33 N/mm and 2.16 ± 0.64 N/mm for artificially calcified and healthy porcine aortic tissues respectively.