Noninvasive, patient-specific computational fluid dynamics simulations of dural venous sinus pressures in idiopathic intracranial hypertension

Background

The pathophysiology of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) is poorly understood, making the disease difficult to properly diagnose and treat. Endovascular venous stenting has emerged as an effective non-invasive treatment option for a select cohort of IIH patients with venous sinus stenosis and elevated venous sinus pressure gradient. Unfortunately, current methods of determining patient eligibility for stenting treatment depend on highly invasive and insufficient measurement methods such as venous manometry, which can only measure pressure gradients and not other components of the complex 3D hemodynamic environment. Thus, there is a need for a non-invasive methodology for determining the 3D flow environment of the dural venous sinuses.

Objective

To develop a novel method of non-invasive, patient-specific computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation of venous sinus hemodynamics for evaluating stenting eligibility.

Method

A patient with IIH and elevated sinus pressure gradient underwent MR venography, phase-contrast MR venography, and venous manometry. Patient-specific dural venous anatomy was segmented from the MR venography to construct 3D models of the venous sinuses. 3D transient patient-specific computational fluid dynamic simulations were conducted using flow velocities measured with phase-contrast MR venography as boundary conditions.

Results

Successful computational simulations were completed, allowing for the calculation of the spatio-temporal evolution of blood flow through the dural venous sinuses, and the quantitative examination of pressure gradients. Calculated pressure gradients from CFD were validated against venous manometry with an error of only ∼5%.

Conclusions

We have successfully developed time-resolved, patient-specific 3D computational simulations of the dural venous sinuses without assumptions at the boundary conditions for the first time. The methodology can accurately and non-invasively measure venous pressure gradients. This preliminary study serves as a proof of concept for our method to be used as a diagnostic tool for determining venous stenting eligibility, as well as a tool for advancing the general understanding of IIH pathophysiology.