Three dimensional reconstruction and airflow simulation in a realistic model of the human respiratory airways

Abstract

Respiratory tract diseases are a common cause of medical consultation. Indeed, most of this patients need an adequate treatment to improve their airway conditions. In order to understand how the airflow works through the lower airway and how disease condition may affect it, this paper presents an airflow simulation based on a three dimensional model from a real human airway constructed from a Computed Tomography scan. Methodology used to perform the simulation, include the implementation of Materialise’s medical image software MIMICS R ® (v. 18.0), in order to segment the lower airway using region based segmentation procedures. Moreover, a computational fluid dynamic simulation was carried out by using the finite element software Comsol R ® (v. 5.2); to this end, this paper shows a comprehensive workflow integrating both software to obtain a realistic airflow simulation through the lower airway. Velocity and pressure profiles are presented to assess the effectiveness of the simulation, showing a parabolic non-compressive flow and high pressure in complex anatomical geometric areas, validating the expected physiologic behavior.