Sharif Digital Repository

Endothelial derived nitric oxide (NO) and its role in regulating the physiological conditions of blood vessels is one of the favorite topics among researchers. The majority of previous studies have focused on nitric oxide transport in blood vessels, less attention has been paid to its vasodilative effects in blood vessels. The main aim of this study is to propose an integrated model to study the effects of endothelial-derived nitric oxide on hemodynamic conditions of blood vessels. Nitric oxide is produced by endothelial cells upon exposure to mechanical forces such as hemodynamic shear stress. The synthesized nitric oxide then diffuses into the neighboring vascular smooth cells, where it... 

Despite the significant progress of machine learning models in the health domain, current advanced methods usually produce non-transparent and black-box models, and for this reason, they are not widely used in medical decision-making. To address the issue of non-transparency in black-box models, interpretable machine learning models have been developed. In the health domain, counterfactual scenarios can provide personalized explanations for predictions and suggest necessary changes to transition from an undesirable outcome class to a desirable one for physicians. The aim of this study is to present an interpretable machine learning framework in the health domain that, in addition to having... 

Carotid bifurcation is one of the most important bifurcations in human body which has a lot of curvature in some people. The common carotid artery bifurcates into an internal carotid artery (ICA) and an external carotid artery (ECA). The incidence of stenosis in carotid bifurcation and in particular in the internal carotid artery is of special importance. In the United States of America by 2006, nearly 700000 strokes occur each year, with about 160000 deaths and 20 to 30% of strokes are caused by stenotic carotid that cost estimated at $160 billion. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate in hemodynamic factors of blood flow such as velocity variation, vortex patterns, shear stress and... 

Coronary arteries often experience tortuosity under internal blood pressure and longitude axial twisting. Arterial tortuosity can enhance the stress concentration on the artery walls. Now if the coronary arteries suffer from atherosclerosis (a common disease among adults) the stress concentration on the tortuous artery plaque will be enhanced as well. Increased stress on the plaque may result in plaque rupture and its consequent damages. This study aims to investigate the stress concentration on the plaques and blood flow patterns within the coronary arteries with plaque. Moreover, the plaque growth was predicted taking into account various geometrical parameters including fibrous cap... 

Nowadays, cardiovascular diseases are among the most prevalent cause of death worldwide. Besides, atherosclerosis is a cardiovascular disease happening with the continuous narrowing of vessels, especially medium and large-sized arteries. Moreover, the human aorta is vulnerable to this phenomenon. Atherosclerosis happens when the excess LDL in the blood flow penetrates the arterial wall. Then, the LDL is oxidized, thereby recruiting monocytes as the response against oxidized LDL. After monocytes enter the arterial wall, they differentiate and become macrophages. Macrophages then transform into foam cells by ingesting the oxidized LDL. The fatty foam cells are eventually responsible for the...