Computational Studies on the Hemodynamics of Patient-Specific Human Carotid Artery

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is a cardiovascular disease that affects large and medium-sized arteries and is characterised by intricate interactions between the artery wall and pulsatile blood flow. The current research focuses on the hemodynamics of the human carotid artery in both healthy and stenosed patients. Using the 3D Slicer, CT images of patients are rebuilt to get the three-dimensional geometry of the carotid artery. To further understand the effects of hemodynamic factors, computational experiments are conducted. The study used Time-Averaged Wall Shear Stress (TAWSS), OSI (Oscillating Shear Index), and RRT (Relative Residence Time) as hemodynamic parameters to characterise the flow behaviour. In this study, we have undertaken CFD studies on hemodynamic descriptors of a healthy normal artery (Case A) and unhealthy stenosed artery (Case B). The study concludes that there is a significant variation in the hemodynamic descriptors taken for study in the case of an unhealthy stenosed artery. High values of OSI and RRT are noticed in the case of an unhealthy stenosed artery. The larger magnitudes in the hemodynamic parameters indicate associated risk factors to progress and thus promotes atherosclerosis. All of these are effective in determining the loss of vascular function and the vessel tissue's integrity. For clinical diagnosis and further anatomical evidence, the indicated hemodynamics examination platform is relatively effective for clinicians. The novelty of this work is that we have used patient specific carotid artery of healthy and unhealthy artery, reconstructed artery from CT scans using appropriate medical imaging softwares, used physiological pulsatile flow for velocity input, coded an user defined function for the hemodynamic parameters like TAWSS, OSI, and RRT.