Towards simulation of germinal matrix hemorrhage as a complication of premature birth

Abstract

The germinal matrix being an accumulation of im-mature blood vessels in the premature infant brain is known to be the main cause of the intracranial hem-orrhage. To investigate the injuring mechanism to the blood vessels of the germinal matrix, a modeling sce-nario that consists of three basic steps is proposed. First, the cerebral blood flow that depends on auto-regulation, CO 2 reactivity, and variations of intrac-ranial pressure is modeled. Second, the chaotic blood vessel network of the germinal matrix is generated, and blood pressures in the vessels of this network are computed dependent on the outcome of the first step. In the third step, the pressures computed on the sec-ond step are used in finite element simulations of separate blood vessels of the germinal matrix to de-tect critical values for vessels impairment.