A Model of Vein Graft Intimal Hyperplasia

When vein graft is implanted in the arterial system, the vein graft wall becomes thicker as an adaptive process. We have developed a model of early adaptive vein graft intimal thickening induced by shear stress. Intimal thickness and the rate of intimal thickening are expressed as functions of shear stress and time based on experimental data. The model describes the behavior of intimal thickening which is inversely related to shear stress. It also depicts the time-dependent behavior of the vein graft intimal thickening.