Numerical Simulations of Blood Flow in Realistic Human Arterys for the Assessment of Patient Specific Risk

Cardiovascular diseases like the aortic dissection and atherosclerose in the carotid artey are a leading cause of worldwide mortality, yet current risk assessment is based on arbitrary treshhold and lack patient-specific precision. By using Computational Fluid Dynamics to govern the blood flow and Fluid-Structure-Interaction considering the flexibility of artery walls as well as the Windkessel effect multiphysical numerical models for personalized risk assessment are developed. Patient-specific arterial geometries are reconstructed from high-quality CT Angiography (CTA) scans and processed using automated segmentation tools. Then the numerical models are used to get insights into problematic flow patterns and endothelial stress responsible for inflammatory response by the artery wall. In collaboration with the Universitätsmedizin Mainz the predictive power of those models is evaluated. For example, already demonstrating that patient-specific simulated Oscillating Shear successfully predicts sites of aortic dissection when comparing pre- and post-dissection states. Also, Histological analysis conducted by the Universitätsmedizin confirms tissue degradation in numerically predicted high-shear zones.