Comparative study of flow in right-sided and left-sided aortas: numerical simulations in patient-based models.
A right-sided aorta is a rare malformation which may be associated with other various types of congenital heart disease. We utilised haemodynamic, echocardiographic measurements, computerised tomography and image reconstruction software packages that were integrated in a computational fluid dynamics model to determine blood flow patterns in patient-based aortas. In the left-sided aorta, a systolic clockwise rotational component was present, while helical flow was depicted in the aortic arch that was converted in the descending aorta as counter-rotating vortices with accompanying retrograde flow. The right-sided configuration has not altered the orientation of the three-dimensional vortex, but intensification of polymorphic flow patterns, alterations in wall shear stress distribution and development of a lateral pressure gradient at the area of an aneurysmal anomaly was observed. Moreover, increments of Reynolds, Womersley and Dean numbers were evident. These phenomena along with the formation of the aneurysm might influence cardiovascular risk in patients with right-sided aortas.
a Department of Mathematics , University of Ioannina , Ioannina , Greece.
Michalis
M
Xenos
Dimitrios
D
Karakitsos
Nicos
N
Labropoulos
Apostolos
A
Tassiopoulos
Thomas V
TV
Bilfinger
Danny
D
Bluestein
D000328:Adult; D001011:Aorta / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003971:Diastole; D005260:Female; D018056:Hemorheology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D009716:Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; D066230:Patient-Specific Modeling; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013599:Systole; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014463:Ultrasonography
76Z05; 76Z99; 92C10; aortic flow; computational fluid dynamics; echocardiography; right-sided aorta