Intracranial aneurysms and artery stenosis are vascular diseases with different pathophysiological characteristics. However, although unusual, aneurysms may coexist in up to 5% of patients with stenotic plaque, according to a previous study. Another study showed that incidental detection of cerebral aneurysm in the same cerebral circulation as the stenotic plaque was less than 2%. Patients with concomitant carotid artery stenosis and unruptured intracranial aneurysms pose a difficult management decision for the physician. Case reports showed patients who died due to aneurysm rupture months after endarterectomy but before aneurysm clipping, while others did not show any change in the aneurysm after plaque removal, having optimum outcome after aneurysm coiling. The purpose of this study is to investigate the intraaneurysmal hemodynamic changes before and after treatment of stenotic plaque. Idealized models were constructed with different stenotic grade, distance and relative position to the aneurysm. Digital removal of the stenotic plaque was performed in the reconstructed model of a patient with both pathologies. Computational fluid dynamic simulations were performed using a finite element method approach. Blood velocity field and hemodynamic forces were recorded and analyzed. Changes in the flow patterns and wall shear stress values and distributions were observed in both ideal and image-based models. Detailed investigation of wall shear stress distributions in patients with both pathologies is required to make the best management decision.

Date Published: 13 April 2012
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8317, Medical Imaging 2012: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging, 83170D (13 April 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.910651

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8317:
Medical Imaging 2012: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging
Robert C. Molthen; John B. Weaver, Editor(s)