A proposed parent vessel geometry-based categorization of saccular intracranial aneurysms: computational flow dynamics analysis of the risk factors for lesion rupture.

Object: The authors created a simple, broadly applicable classification of saccular intracranial aneurysms into three categories: sidewall (SW), sidewall with branching vessel (SWBV), and endwall (EW) according to the angiographically documented patterns of their parent arteries. Using computational flow dynamics analysis (CFDA) of simple models representing the three aneurysm categories, the authors analyzed geometry-related risk factors such as neck width, parent artery curvature, and angulation of the branching vessels.

Methods: The authors performed CFDAs of 68 aneurysmal geometric formations documented on angiograms that had been obtained in patients with 45 ruptured and 23 unruptured lesions.

Computational replicas: anatomic reconstructions of cerebral vessels as volume numerical grids at three-dimensional angiography.

Background And Purpose: We present a relatively simple approach that physicians can use to reconstruct cerebral vessels as 3D numerical grids or computational replicas. The method accurately duplicates their geometry to provide computer simulations of their blood flow.

Methods: Initial images were obtained by using any medical imaging technique, such as MR angiography, CT angiography, or 3D digital subtraction angiography.

Computational simulation of therapeutic parent artery occlusion to treat giant vertebrobasilar aneurysm.

We applied computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to assess 3D digital subtraction angiography findings in a patient with a giant vertebrobasilar aneurysm to simulate and compare the consequences of left and right vertebral artery occlusion. The balloon occlusion test suggested that occlusion of the right vertebral artery is the better way to treat this patient's aneurysm from the point of view of aneurysmal thrombosis and isolation from the circulation. The computer simulation supported this conclusion, at the same time indicating that from the point of view of pressure distribution on the wall of the aneurysm, the right vertebral occlusion may be also accompanied by an undesirable effect.

Hemodynamic analysis of an adult vein of Galen aneurysm malformation by use of 3D image-based computational fluid dynamics.

We applied computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis on the numerical grid of a 3D rotational digital subtraction angiogram obtained in a 22-year-old male patient, with an accidentally discovered vein of Galen malformation associated with single feeder aneurysm, to understand the flow pattern through the two aneurysms and improve our general understanding of hemodynamic characteristics of this variety of fusiform aneurysm. This technical note provides a good example of the application of CFD to 3D digital subtraction angiography for studying the flow pattern in patients with cerebrovascular disease.