Development of patient-specific 1D-0D simulation based on MRI and SPECT data

The hemodynamics of blood flow in the Circle of Willis (CoW) is considered to be important for the understanding of disease progression in cerebral circulation. In this research, we developed a method by combining 1D-0D model with the medical imaging data of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), in order to investigate the hemodynamics in CoW. The MRI data was used as the arterial geometry parameter for 1D model. The SPECT data was used as the reference data for the flow rates at the efferent arteries of CoW, which indicated if adjustment needed to be made to the peripheral cerebral resistance for 0D model. We applied our method to two patients and compared the simulation results with PC-MRI measurement data. The comparison showed the differences of flow distribution in the afferent arteries between simulation results and measurement data were 0.6–6.0% and 5.7–13.2% respectively in two cases. Both simulations captured the individual difference of flow distribution in the CoW. The results suggested that our method can be used to obtain the hemodynamics information in the CoW for an individual patient.