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     Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA)

AAAis a localized dilatation (ballooning) of the abdominal aorta exceeding the normal diameter by more than 50 percent, and is the most common form of aortic aneurysm.

With total mortality between 75% and 90% AAA ranks among 10th leading cause of death in men above the age of 65

Currently AAA rupture risk is based on the maximum diameter.  A diameter of 55 mm or more is a generally accepted as indication for repair in males.

This kind of rupture risk assessment is not so much reliable since there are cases with diameter of less than 55mm which may rupture and many aneurisms with diameter larger than 55 mm which may never rupture.

From biomechanical aspect of view aneurism ruptures when wall stress overcomes wall strength at certain location in the wall.

Biomechanical analysis is based on finite element method.

Studies showed that wall stress distribution betters discriminates between ruptured and non-ruptured aneurysms than the maximal diameter criterion.

 

     CFDVasc

CFDVasc represents commercial software tool which provides detailed biomechanical analysis of patient specific AAA by using raw patient data in a form of medical images acquired from CT scanners.

CFDVasc perfoms all necessary steps:

  • Medical images visualization, segmentation and contour detection from DICOM files
  • 3D reconstruction
  • Meshing and prescribing boundary conditions
  • Performing CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and CSD (computational solid dynamics) and fluid-structure interaction, ALE formulation
  • Visualization of calculated results, shear stress, effective wall stress, velocity, pressure
  • Nonlinear tissue material properties, different wall layers

 

     Benefits

Currently computer analysis requires combining different solutions for accomplishing necessary steps. Lack of compatibility and requirements of technical experience makes that kind of approach prone to errors and inaccuracy.

CFDVasc is designed to support all of the steps necessary for FEM analysis of AAA from raw patient data. It represents uniform, monolith solution equipped with user friendly interface which requires no or little effort to perform whole analysis of AAA. It does not require any specific technical experience and by automating pipeline steps saves a lot of time. It is designed to easily be integrated into clinics systems.