Parameter Study of Hemodynamics Simulation at Internal Carotid Stenosis

Abstract

Background and purpose: Stenting is one of the treatment options for carotid artery stenosis. To show the effectiveness of the treatment, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been performed for the last several decades. The inlet/outlet boundary conditions are important in CFD, and several researchers have used various inlet/outlet boundary conditions. In this paper, we compared the blood flow with various inlet/outlet boundary conditions and the measurement data obtained by an ultrasound device.
Methods: Blood flow speed was measured in the internal carotid artery (ICA), the external carotid artery (ECA), and the common carotid artery (CCA) using an ultrasound device. A carotid artery was reconstructed by computed tomography (CT). Mesh in the integrated data was generated to perform flow dynamics using a commercial code. CFD for blood flow was performed using the reconstructed carotid artery. Five cases of inlet and outlet boundary conditions (I/O B.C.) were used for the CFD. The simulation results were compared with the ultrasound data on the blood flow speed in the vicinity of the center of the ICA and the ECA.
Results: Various blood flow speeds were obtained from the five cases. The case of adjustment of pressures in ICA and ECA is the nearest flow speed to the ultrasound data.
Conclusion: The flow speed depends on the I/O B.C.. The I/O B.C. may be necessary for the measurement data obtained by ultrasound device or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).