In the general population, cerebral aneurysms affect 5% to 8% of people. Blood leakage into the brain as a result of a blood vessel rupture could result in a deadly outcome or a major stroke. More than a quarter of individuals who have a hemorrhagic stroke pass away before getting to a medical facility.
For medical prevention and therapy, the ability to predict aneurysm rupture is essential. Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum, created a patient-specific mathematical model for the physics of fluids to investigate how aneurysm characteristics affect rupture risk before surgery.
Aneurysms happen when the blood vessel’s weakest spot thins, enlarges, and eventually bursts. When cerebral aneurysms like the internal carotid artery bifurcation aneurysm occur, blood escapes into the brain cavity.
We were inspired to evaluate internal carotid artery aneurysms in a systematic way because doctors encounter these aneurysms at different growth stages, according to B. Jayanand Sudhir of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology. The current study is an honest and methodical attempt to learn about the start, progression, and risk of rupture by looking at how blood flows at different stages.
The scientists looked at aneurysms’ aspect ratio and size ratio, which holistically define the shape and size properties of the bulge. The pressure exerted on the aneurysm walls and the amount of time blood spends there both rise when these parameters rise and the aneurysm widens. This increases the chance of a rupture.
Computed tomography scans specific to the patient are incorporated into the model, which reconstructs the aneurysm’s shape and blood flow. The fluid flow is then described using mathematical equations, providing details on the blood vessels and blood flow patterns.
S.V. Patnaik of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras said, “This was possible because we had access to the national supercomputing cluster for carrying out the computational fluid dynamics-based simulations.”
According to Sudhir, the close collaboration and fusion of knowledge from technical and clinical backgrounds is what makes this work new. “Because the aneurysm models were different, we were able to figure out and understand the complexity of flow structures in multilobed cerebral aneurysms.”
Multilobed aneurysms, which have many pockets of expanding blood like balloons, have more intricate blood flow patterns than single-lobed aneurysms.
The authors plan to convert the rupture risk projections into a user-friendly software in order to assist doctors and neurosurgeons in prioritizing and managing high-risk patients. The model will be used to evaluate the efficacy of various aneurysm treatment approaches.
