Effects of CT resolution and radiodensity threshold on the CFD evaluation of nasal airflow

The article focuses on the robustness of a CFD-based procedure for the quantitative evaluation of the nasal airflow. CFD ability to yield robust results with respect to the unavoidable procedural and modeling inaccuracies must be demonstrated to allow this tool to become part of the clinical practice in this field. The present article specifically addresses the sensitivity of the CFD procedure to the spatial resolution of the available CT scans, as well as to the choice of the segmentation level of the CT images. We found no critical problems concerning these issues; nevertheless, the choice of the segmentation level is potentially delicate if carried out by an untrained operator.