Reconstruction of blood flow patterns in a human carotid bifurcation: A combined CFD and MRI study

The carotid bifurcation is a common site for clinically significant atheros clerosis, and the development of this disease may be influenced by the loca l hemodynamic environment, It has been shown that vessel. geometry and puls atile now conditions are the predominant factors that determine the detaile d blood now patterns at the carotid bifurcation. This study was initiated t o quantify the velocity profiles and wall shear stress (WSS) distributions in an anatomically true model of the human carotid bifurcation using data a cquired from magnetic resonance (MR) imaging scans of an individual subject . A numerical simulation approach combining the image processing and comput ational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques was developed. Individual vascular anatomy and pulsatile flow conditions were all incorporated into the comput er model, It was found that the geometry of the carotid bifurcation was hig hly complex, involving helical curvature and out-of-plane branching, These geometrical features resulted in patterns of now and wall shear stress sign ificantly different from those found in simplified planar carotid bifurcati on models, Comparisons between the predicted flow patterns and MR measureme nt demonstrated good quantitative agreement. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.