Wall shear stress distribution in patient specific coronary artery bifurcation

Problem statement: Atherogenesis is affected by hemodynamic parameters, such as wall shear stress and wall shear stress spatial gradient. These parameters are largely dependent on the geometry of arterial tree. Arterial bifurcations contain significant flow disturbances. Approach: The effects of branch angle and vessel diameter ratio at the bifurcations on the wall shear stress distribution in the coronary arterial tree based on CT images were studied. CT images were digitally processed to extract geometrical contours representing the coronary vessel walls. The lumen of the coronary arteries of the patients was segmented using the open source software package (VMTK). The resulting lumens of coronary arteries were fed into a commercial mesh generator (GAMBIT, Fluent Inc.) to generate a volume that was filled with tetrahedral elements. The FIDAP software (Fluent Corp.) was used to carry out the simulation by solving Navier-Stokes equations. The FIELDVIEW software (Version 10.0, Intelligent Light, Lyndhurst, NJ) was used for the visualization of flow patterns and the quantification of wall shear stress. Post processing was done with VMTK and MATLAB. A parabolic velocity profile was prescribed at the inlets and outlets, except for 1. Stress free outlet was assigned to the remaining outlet. Results: The results show that for angle lower than 90°, low shear stress regions are observed at the non-flow divider and the apex. For angle larger than 90°, low shear stress regions only at the nonflow divider. By increasing of diameter of side branch ratio, low shear stress regions in the side branch appear at the non-flow divider. Conclusion: It is concluded that not only angle and diameter are important, but also the overall 3D shape of the artery. More research is required to further quantify the effects angle and diameter on shear stress patterns in coronaries.