Computational analysis of anterior communicating artery aneurysm shear stress before and after aneurysm formation

Abstract

It is widely accepted that complexity in the flow pattern at the anterior communicating artery (AComA) is associated with the high rate of aneurysm formation at that location observed in large studies. The purpose of this work is to study associations between hemodynamic patterns, and AComA aneurysm initiation by comparing hemodynamics in the aneurysm and the normal model where the aneurysm was computationally removed. Vascular models of both right and left circulation were independently reconstructed from three-dimensional rotational angiography images using deformable models after image registration of both images, and fused using a surface merging algorithm. The geometric models were then used to generate high-quality volumetric finite element grids of tetrahedra with an advancing front technique. For each patient, the second anatomical model was created by digitally removing the aneurysm. It was iteratively achieved by applying a Laplacian smoothing filter and remeshing the surface. Finite element blood flow numerical simulations were performed for both the pathological and normal models under the same personalized pulsatile flow conditions imposed at the inlets of both models. The Navier-Stokes equations were numerically integrated by using a finite-element formulation. It was observed that aneurysms initiated in regions of high and moderate WSS in the counterpart normal models. Adjacent or close to those regions, low WSS portions of the arterial wall were not affected by the disease. These results are in line with previous observations at other vascular locations.