Comparison of blood flow patterns in cerebral aneurysms

Thrombogenesis is said to play an important role in the rupture of cerebral artery aneurysms and it was reported that the degree of platelet aggregation in an aneurysm had a significant correlation with the flow pattern in the aneurysmal dome. In this study, flows in three different models of cerebral saccular aneurysms at artery bifurcations were numerically investigated to compare flow patterns from a viewpoint of likelihood of platelet aggregation. It was shown that the relative size of the aneurysmal dome had a greater influence on the formation of a low-speed region responsible for active platelet aggregation than geometric features such as the aspect ratio of the aneurysm and the angle of the bifurcation.