Three-Dimensional Modeling of a Bypass Grafted Artery for a CFD Study

Abstract

It has been shown that intimal hyperplasia develops preferentially at the distal anastomosis of a bypass-grafted artery where flow is disturbed and complex secondary and recirculation flows form. Hence to elucidate the mechanism of localization of intimal hyperplasia, it is necessary to investigate the relationship between the preferred sites of intimal hyperplasia and the flow prevailing there. For that purpose, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides a powerful tool. In our present work, we developed first a new modeling system to construct anatomically realistic 3-dimensional CFD models from resinous casts of real arteries, and then calculated detailed flow patterns at the distal anastomosis of a bypass-grafted artery.