Hemodialysis access failure: viscoelastic vascular properties an intimal hyperplasia development

intimal hyperplasia development is largely the most important cause of vascular access failure in patients submitted to hemodialysis. differences in the biomechanical properties between the vascular substitutes and the native vessels have been related to the development of intimal hyperplasia. this work aim was to characterize the biomechanical behavior of arteries, veins, cryopreserved arteries and eptfe prostheses. fresh and cryopreserved human arteries and veins and eptfe conduits were in-vitro studied in order to analyze their viscoelastic properties. our results show that eptfe has an elastic index, which is significantly different from that of the other conduits. this determines a high elastic mismatch that has been involved as a cause of intimal hyperplasia development. we conclude that the biomechanical study of tubular segments to be used as vascular accesses demonstrate viscoelastic differences that could be an important determinant of access viability.