Investigate the Velocity Difference Between MRI Measurement and CFD Simulation on Patient-Specific Blood Flow Analysis

Abstract

AbstractThis paper tends to investigate the velocity difference between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurement and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation on patient-specific blood flow analysis. Three patients diagnosed with particular cerebral aneurysms are involved in the current investigation. The raw image data from patients have been processed through image segmentation for model reconstruction using several threshold coefficients, \(C_{thres}\) from 0.2 to 0.6 according to the threshold value determined using threshold determination method. Besides, the velocity profile is extracted from the MRI measurement and applied in the inlet boundary condition setup. Meanwhile, pressure-fixed (P-fixed) approach is applied at all the outlets prior to CFD simulation. Based on the comparison made between the MRI measurement and CFD results, the model geometries reconstructed with threshold coefficients, \(C_{thres}\) of 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 are considered to be the optimized model geometries which have shown significantly small velocity difference between 0.3% and 12%, in term of average velocity among the model geometries of respective patient. The results also depict that the artery branch and the bifurcation regions, which are subjected to high velocity concentration could be the hemodynamics factor contributing to cerebral aneurysm growing and rupturing.KeywordsCerebral aneurysmThreshold determinationImage processingSegmentationHemodynamics