Rule-based Simulation of Aortic Aneurysmal Growth Induced by Hemodynamics

INTRODUCTION An aneurysm is a vascular disease characterized by local ballooning of an arterial wall. The etiology of aneurysm formation is thought to be due to long-term remodeling of blood vessel wall in response to hemodynamics [1]. Changes in vessel geometry and mechanical properties of blood vessel wall induce alteration in the pattern of hemodynamics which then provides new mechanical stimuli to the vessel wall to cause further wall remodeling. However this repeated process has not been included in the past studies [2, 3]. In this study, the influence of hemodynamics on the wall is expressed by a remodeling model that provides growth and degeneration of the arterial wall depending on wall shear stress (WSS). The objective of this study is to see how the aortic geometry changes when the wall grows and mechanical properties change, and to find out the remodeling rule to represent anatomically realistic aneurysm by computer simulation.