Effect of Ambient Temperature Changes on Blood Flow in Anterior Cerebral Artery of Patients with Skull Prosthesis

Abstract

In many cases, an injury to the head leads to the replacement of a part of the skull with materials such as titanium and polyether ether ketone. Three-dimensional heads model of 15 healthy individuals and 13 patients were prepared. The models were simulated using thermal fluid structure interaction analysis to evaluate the effects of cold (5°C) and hot (55°C) temperatures of the skull on the conditions of blood flow in the anterior cerebral artery. The results showed negligible changes (<3%) in wall shear stress (WSS) vessel and von Mises stress between the healthy individuals and patients both at 25°C and 55°C. However, at 5°C, the values of these 2 parameters in the patients were 2.1 and 2.5 times those in healthy individuals, respectively. The value of WSS in healthy individuals and the patients in cold temperature was 1.2 and 2.9 times those at normal temperature. The corresponding values for von Mises stress were 1.1 and 2.2, respectively. Accordingly, the stress changes between cold and hot ambient temperatures were found to be negligible in all samples. The changes in stress were significant only for the patients when exposed to cold ambient temperature, and only in patients, exposure to a cold ambient temperature significantly increased the risks of vascular aneurysm and damage to the brain tissue surrounding the blood vessels. These risks were found to be negligible for both healthy individuals and patients when exposed to hot ambient temperature and also for healthy individuals exposed to cold ambient temperature.