A numerical study of the hemodynamics in common carotid artery affected by different shapes of carotid atherosclerotic plaque

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases have been the leading cause of mortality globally [1]. Particularly, stroke is one of the consequences of cardiovascular diseases and is accounted for the 51% of the CVDs mortality [2]. The geometry of the plaque is a considerable factor to the thrombosis formation which leads to cerebral ischemic events and plaque progression because of the blood flow recirculation and oscillatory resulting from the narrowing of arteries. In our study, hemodynamic distributions in several geometries of eccentric artery narrowing under the same degree of stenosis were investigated. The velocity magnitudes at the downstream of all cases were also calculated. Our results showed that, when the location of the throat of the stenosis shifted from distal to proximal, the velocity of the inverse flow at the immediate downstream decreases while the forward velocity increases. This phenomenon indicates that the recirculation is eased as the shift of the location of the throat.