IMAGE-BASED MODELING OF BLOOD FLOW IN HUMAN CORONARY ARTERIES WITH AND WITHOUT BYPASS GRAFTS DURING REST AND SIMULATED EXERCISE

摘要

The number of patients with coronary artery disease continues to rise, with approximately 469,000 coronary bypass procedures in 2005 alone [1]. A priori knowledge of the flow features within the coronary vascular system could prove useful in predicting flow changes due to coronary bypass surgery. Image-based modeling and 3-D computational simulations could be used to compute flow and pressure in a patient-specific manner. However, modeling coronary flow requires knowledge of the intramyocardial pressure that compresses coronary vessels, resulting in decreased flow in systole and increased flow in diastole.