Application of Patient-Specific Computational Fluid Dynamics in Coronary and Intra-Cardiac Flow Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The emergence of new cardiac diagnostics and therapeutics of the heart has given rise to the challenging field of virtual design and testing of technologies in a patient-specific environment. Given the recent advances in medical imaging, computational power and mathematical algorithms, patient-specific cardiac models can be produced from cardiac images faster, and more efficiently than ever before. The emergence of patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has paved the way for the new field of computer-aided diagnostics. This article provides a review of CFD methods, challenges and opportunities in coronary and intra-cardiac flow simulations. It includes a review of market products and clinical trials. Key components of patient-specific CFD are covered briefly which include image segmentation, geometry reconstruction, mesh generation, fluid-structure interaction, and solver techniques.

Geometrical effects in the hemodynamics of stenotic and non‐stenotic left coronary arteries—numerical and in vitro approaches

“…The effect of non-planarity is also observed at the LAD, as displayed in Figure 11. The non-planar model presents asymmetrical flow behavior, similarly to the patient-specific model, in contrast with the symmetric flow in the planar model- Figure 11 (7) eccentricity.…”

“…Numerical results obtained for the steady state and Newtonian blood behavior FIGURE 9 Cross sections perpendicular to the flow along left anterior descending (LAD) a left circumflex arteries (LCx) branches located at LCx branch, three of them in the stenotic region ( Figure 9-(1), (2), and (3), red) and the other two where the LCx deviates from the main plane (Figure 9-(4) and (5), green). The remaining cross sections are located at the LAD in the region where this branch deviates from the main plane (Figure 9-(6), (7), and (8), blue).…”

“…Numerical simulation of coronary blood flow in patient‐specific geometry has been focus of several papers. The procedure was reviewed by Zhong et al and Zhang et al Usually, the geometry is obtained from computed tomography (CT) images of patients with or without lesions in their arteries …”

Computational investigation of hemodynamics in hardshell venous reservoirs: A comparative study

“…Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based procedures are being increasingly used to investigate blood flow characteristics. Various computational models, for the vascular blood flow with different emphases, were presented by a number of researchers . Computational investigation of the blood flow in artificial organs and biomedical devices such as heart pumps in various designs has equally attracted attention .…”

“…Various computational models, for the vascular blood flow with different emphases, were presented by a number of researchers. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Computational investigation of the blood flow in artificial organs and biomedical devices such as heart pumps in various designs has equally attracted attention. [12][13][14][15] A further field where CFD approaches have been extensively utilized comprises design engineering and performance monitoring of heart valves.…”