Characterization of Hemodynamics in Great Arteries of Wild-Type Mouse Using Computational Fluid Dynamics Based on Ultrasound Images

Hemodynamic factors in cardiovascular system are hypothesized to play a significant role in causing structural heart development. It is thus important to improve our understanding of velocity characteristics and parameters. We present such a study on wild-type mouse to characterize the vessel geometry, flow pattern, and wall shear stress in great arteries. Microultrasound imaging for small animals was used to measure blood boundary and velocity of the great arteries. Subsequently, specimens' flow boundary conditions were used for 3-dimensional reconstructions of the great artery and aortic arch dimensions, and blood flow velocity data were input into subject-specific computational fluid dynamics for modeling hemodynamics. Measurement by microultrasound imaging showed that blood velocities in the great artery and aortic arch had strong correlations with vascular sizes, whereas blood pressure had a weak trend in relation to vascular size. Wall shear stress magnitude increased when closer to arterial branches and reduced proximally in the aortic root and distally in the descending aorta, and the parameters were related to the fluid mechanics in branches in some degree. We developed a method to investigate fluid mechanics in mouse arteries, using a combination of microultrasound and computational fluid dynamics, and demonstrated its ability to reveal detailed geometric, kinematic, and fluid mechanics parameters.