Reconstruction of Blood Flow Patterns in Human Carotid Arteries using 3D Ultrasound

摘要

Local haemodynamic factors in large arteries are associated with the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and strokes. In search of these factors and their relationship with atheroma formation, quantitative haemodynamic data in realistic arterial geometry become crucial. This paper presents an image-based computational modeling approach which combines computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with a non-invasive 3D ultrasound imaging technique. Accuracy and reproducibility of the modeling approach were evaluated in vitro and in vivo, and the developed protocol was applied to a clinical study. The feasibility of 3D ultrasound based CFD simulations for clinical applications has been demonstrated. However, there are several limitations, mainly the location of the carotid bulb relative to the jaw bone, leading to the exclusion of a large number of possible subjects.