Risk of rupture of the cerebral aneurysm in relation to traumatic brain injury using a patient-specific fluid-structure interaction model

Reza Razaghi; Hasan Biglari; Alireza Karimi

doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2019.04.015

Risk of rupture of the cerebral aneurysm in relation to traumatic brain injury using a patient-specific fluid-structure interaction model

Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2019 Jul:176:9-16. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2019.04.015. Epub 2019 Apr 30.

Authors

Reza Razaghi¹, Hasan Biglari², Alireza Karimi³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 51666, Iran. Electronic address: rrazaghi@tabrizu.ac.ir.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 51666, Iran. Electronic address: hbiglari@tabrizu.ac.ir.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan. Electronic address: karimi@kyudai.jp.

PMID: 31200915
DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2019.04.015

Abstract

Background and objective: Cerebral aneurysm, which is defined as one of the weakened area in the wall of an artery in the brain, ruptures when wall tension exceeds its mechanical strength. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) by exerting a sudden impact load to the brain can lead to mechanical failure of the cerebral blood vessels followed by an alteration in not only the structure but also the function of the cerebrovascular. TBI also alters the hemodynamics of the blood flow in the cerebrovascular, while it has been shown that hemodynamics has a key asset in the progression and rupture of the cerebral aneurysms. So far, there is a lack of knowledge on the risk of rupture of the cerebral aneurysm in relation to TBI. Therefore, this study aimed to calculate the mechanical stresses and deformations in the arterial wall as well as the pressure and velocity of the blood using a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model of the cerebral aneurysm located in the anterior circulation region of the circle of Willis.

Method: A patient-specific FSI model of the human skull, brain, and cerebral aneurysm, was established using human computed tomography (CT)/ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and subjected to a frontal TBI.

Results: The results revealed considerable increasing of ∼ 8 kPa (60 mmHg) and 0.40 m/s in the pressure and velocity of the blood in the intraluminal of the cerebral artery after TBI. The von Mises stress, shear stress, and deformation of the cerebral aneurysm wall also showed the increasing of 56.03 kPa, 15.66 Pa, and 0.072 mm after TBI, respectively.

Conclusions: Although the injury to the aneurysm wall after TBI is lower than that of the aneurysm wall mechanical strength, it still can alter the stress pattern in the wall and disrupt the hemodynamics of the blood. These results have implications in understanding the rupture risk of the cerebral aneurysm due to TBI, which may contribute in establishing preventive and/or treatment methods.

Keywords: Cerebral aneurysm; Deformation; Fluid-structure interaction; Stress; Traumatic brain injury.

MeSH terms

Blood Flow Velocity
Blood Pressure
Brain / diagnostic imaging
Brain Injuries, Traumatic / complications
Brain Injuries, Traumatic / physiopathology*
Cerebral Arteries
Cerebrovascular Circulation
Computer Simulation
Elasticity
Hemodynamics
Humans
Intracranial Aneurysm / complications
Intracranial Aneurysm / physiopathology*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Models, Cardiovascular*
Protein Binding
Rupture
Skull / diagnostic imaging
Stress, Mechanical
Tomography, X-Ray Computed