Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between blood flow and atherosclerosis using Computational Fluid Dynamics. Atherosclerosis is suspected to be related to blood flow, since it develops at specific points on vessel walls. Among these specific locations, bifurcations of blood vessels are especially prone to atherosclerosis, particularly the lateral walls of the common iliac arteries. This distribution of lesions is believed to depend on fluid dynamics phenomena, particularly the wall shear stress. Due to the complex geometry of a real artery, the fine flow structure in an arterial bifurcation may be too complex to study using in vivo or in vitro experiments. Therefore, CFD is one of the most powerful ways to investigate flow in an arterial bifurcation. However, the relevant CFD model must be constructed to obtain a reliable computational analysis. In general, a bifurcation has a complex 3-D configuration, particularly at its sharp edge. Any minute deformation or relative displacement of the bifurcation is thought to have a significant effect on blood flow. In this study, a histology technique, in which the embedded vessels are sliced into thickness of the order of 1 micrometer, was used to model the arterial bifurcation. A computer was used to capture 2-D images of the face of the specimen block after each slice was removed. Then, serial images were used to reconstruct the 3-D blood vessel configuration with a precision appropriate for CFD analysis.
