3D geometric reconstruction of thoracic aortic aneurysms

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Computational Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) involves aortic expansion, posing rupture risks.
• Internal wall stress, influenced by TAA geometry and thrombus, is a better rupture predictor than maximum diameter.
• Accurate TAA geometry reconstruction is vital for patient-specific stress analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel methodology for reconstructing patient-specific thoracic aortic aneurysm models.
• To improve the accuracy of TAA geometry and wall stress calculations.

Main Methods:

• Combined data from multiple magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sets with varying resolutions.
• Created detailed models of the lumen, thrombus, and wall for two patient-specific TAAs.
• Compared results with a reference model built from a single MR image set.

Main Results:

• Finite element simulations revealed differences in stress patterns between coarse and fine models.
• Higher stress values were predicted using the coarse model.
• Maximum wall stress differences were 30% for patient A and 11% for patient B.

Conclusions:

• Presents a novel approach for TAA model reconstruction using multiple MR image sets.
• Enables more accurate representation of TAA lumen and wall surfaces, including intraluminal thrombus.
• Facilitates improved patient-specific stress calculations for TAA rupture risk assessment.