Patient-specific modelling of blood flow dynamics in intra-cranial aneurysms: an example of image-based personalised medicine

The visualisation of blood flow dynamics in intracranial aneurysm using computational fluid dynamics is an example of personalised medicine based on biomedical image analysis. A small percentage of these aneurysms rupture. Blood flow dynamics is thought to play an important role in the rupture process by exerting Wall Shear Stresses (WSS) on the endothelial cells. In this study, the effects of instabilities in the velocity waveform in the parent artery of an aneurysm of the Internal Carotid Artery (ICA) and variations of the computational mesh are investigated with respect to WSS at the aneurysm wall.