title: Wall shear stress in intracranial aneurysms and adjacent arteries.
abstract: Hemodynamic parameters play an important role in aneurysm formation and growth. However, it is difficult to directly observe a rapidly growing de novo aneurysm in a patient. To investigate possible associations between hemodynamic parameters and the formation and growth of intracranial aneurysms, the present study constructed a computational model of a case with an internal carotid artery aneurysm and an anterior communicating artery aneurysm, based on the CT angiography findings of a patient. To simulate the formation of the anterior communicating artery aneurysm and the growth of the internal carotid artery aneurysm, we then constructed a model that virtually removed the anterior communicating artery aneurysm, and a further two models that also progressively decreased the size of the internal carotid artery aneurysm. Computational simulations of the fluid dynamics of the four models were performed under pulsatile flow conditions, and wall shear stress was compared among the different models. In the three aneurysm growth models, increasing size of the aneurysm was associated with an increased area of low wall shear stress, a significant decrease in wall shear stress at the dome of the aneurysm, and a significant change in the wall shear stress of the parent artery. The wall shear stress of the anterior communicating artery remained low, and was significantly lower than the wall shear stress at the bifurcation of the internal carotid artery or the bifurcation of the middle cerebral artery. After formation of the anterior communicating artery aneurysm, the wall shear stress at the dome of the internal carotid artery aneurysm increased significantly, and the wall shear stress in the upstream arteries also changed significantly. These findings indicate that low wall shear stress may be associated with the initiation and growth of aneurysms, and that aneurysm formation and growth may influence hemodynamic parameters in the local and adjacent arteries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Fuyu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Bainan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Zhenghui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: College of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Electronics Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: CT angiography; coupled model; fluid-solid; formation; grants-supported paper; growth; hemodynamic parameters; intracranial aneurysm; multiple aneurysms; neural regeneration; neuroregeneration; numerical simulation; second reconstruction; wall shear stress