Paper published in J Biomech Eng

In 2008 we demonstrated a significant correlation between certain geometric variables and the amount of disturbed flow at the carotid bifurcation. Now working with Qi Zhang and Mort Friedman -- yes, that Mort Friedman, the father of the geometric risk hypothesis -- we extended and improved these correlations in "Use of factor analysis to characterize arterial geometry and predict hemodynamic risk: application to the human carotid bifurcation." To me the strength of factor analysis is not just its ability to rationally combine variables to create factors that improve correlations, but also the ability to identify why certain variables (in the present case, bifurcation angle) are not correlated with disturbed flow. Less directly, the debates we had about why certain geometric factors are better correlated with disturbed flow helped inspire us to identify better geometric variables (to be presented at SPIE Medical Imaging 2011), which can only lead to better factors, etc. And in case you didn't notice the subtle use of bold text, yes there is an issue of terminology that I'm still trying to get used to!