Key result
Numerical simulations of an artificially restored left circumflex artery revealed that both high flow vorticity and low wall shear stress were present near the location where coronary artery disease developed.
Why the study?
Diagnosis, risk analysis, and CAD treatment can be improved with a better understanding of cardiovascular flows, which numerical simulations can assist in achieving.
Computational fluid dynamics simulations suggest that flow vorticity, alongside low wall shear stress, is a relevant parameter for assessing the risk of coronary artery disease development.
Hypothesis-generating for vorticity as CAD risk marker in restored vessels; prospective validation required before clinical consideration.
Diagnosis, risk analysis, and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) can be improved with a better understanding of cardiovascular flows. Numerical simulations can assist in achieving this understanding. The objective of this study is to compare the dynamics of blood flow in a diseased left circumflex artery (LCX) and its artificially restored counterpart representing its healthy state. This comparison is made to identify flow characteristics in the restored vessel that contribute to the development of CAD. The diseased LCX geometry was derived from computed tomography angiography data. The stenosed region of the diseased LCX was repaired by manually redefining cross-sections of the vessel, creating the restored geometry. To account for inaccuracies, variations of the restored LCX were made by dilating the repaired surface. Numerical simulations were conducted on all geometries and the results were compared. Alongside expected low wall shear stress, a region of high vorticity was present in all of the restored vessels near the location where CAD developed in the diseased vessel. Therefore, this research suggests that flow vorticity is relevant in assessing the risk for CAD, potentially improving the accuracy of non-invasive, computational diagnosis. Such improvements can also help avoid unnecessary invasive diagnosis methods and minimize risk.
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Paulraj et al. (2020) studied Coronary artery disease (n=1). Artificial vessel restoration modeling vs. Diseased left circumflex artery geometry was evaluated on Hemodynamic characteristics (wall shear stress and flow vorticity). Numerical simulations of an artificially restored left circumflex artery revealed that both high flow vorticity and low wall shear stress were present near the location where coronary artery disease developed.
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