Identifying the Distribution of Heterogeneous Anisotropic Elastic Properties in Cerebral Aneurysms

Cerebral aneurysms are focal dilatations of the intracranial arterial wall, whose rupture risk is likely related to pressure induced wall stress. Fundamental to stress and strain prediction in aneurysms is the constitutive behavior of wall tissue. However, delineating the constitutive equation of aneurismal tissue, in particular, experimental determination of the material parameters, presents some significant challenges due to the nonlinear, anisotropic and heterogeneous nature of the aneurysmal tissue.