Doctors have long struggled to predict who will have an ischemic stroke. Some people with only mild narrowing of the arteries suddenly develop a dangerous blood clot, while others with more severe disease do not.
A new study suggests that looking at the unique shape of each person’s arteries may provide much better answers.
Researchers from the University of Sydney have developed a tiny laboratory device called an artery-on-a-chip that acts as a ‘physical twin’ of a patient’s artery. Their findings were published in the journal Cell Biomaterials. The new technology is designed to copy a person’s blood vessels and the way blood flows through them as closely as possible.
An ischemic stroke happens when blood flow to part of the brain is blocked, usually by a blood clot. Without enough oxygen, brain cells begin to die within minutes. Because quick treatment is critical, doctors are searching for better ways to identify people who are at the highest risk before a stroke occurs.
Current methods often focus on how much an artery has narrowed. However, many patients with only moderate narrowing still experience strokes, while others with severe narrowing remain stable. This suggests that narrowing alone does not tell the whole story.
To investigate further, the researchers reconstructed carotid arteries from six patients with different levels of artery disease. The carotid arteries are the major blood vessels in the neck that carry blood to the brain. They then used advanced computer modeling to calculate exactly how blood moved through each artery.
The team discovered that arteries with similar amounts of narrowing often had very different blood flow patterns. Small differences in the three-dimensional shape of the artery created areas where blood moved more slowly or became disturbed. These changes affected how easily blood clots formed and whether they were likely to break away.
The scientists recreated each artery inside a small chip and used cells that closely resembled those lining real blood vessels. They also created tiny injuries inside the model to mimic damage that can occur in diseased arteries. The clotting response was very different from one patient’s artery to another, showing how individual anatomy may strongly influence stroke risk.
Lead researcher Professor Lining Arnold Ju said the project was inspired by the need to better identify patients who appear to be at low risk but still suffer severe or even fatal strokes. First author Yunduo Charles Zhao said his interest in improving stroke prediction was strengthened after his grandmother died from a stroke during his doctoral studies.
The researchers hope the new platform will help scientists test medicines that reduce clot formation and eventually allow doctors to choose treatments based on each patient’s own artery structure.
The team is already recruiting patients for a clinical trial to evaluate how well the technology predicts stroke risk in real clinical settings. They also believe the system could be useful for studying other blood vessel diseases, including deep-vein thrombosis, aneurysms, and peripheral artery disease.
This early research represents an important step toward personalized stroke prevention. Although larger clinical studies are still needed, the technology could one day help doctors identify high-risk patients earlier and provide more targeted treatment before a stroke happens. The study was published in Cell Biomaterials.
If you care about stroke, please read studies that diets high in flavonoids could help reduce stroke risk, and MIND diet could slow down cognitive decline after stroke.
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