Morphological Effect on Wall Shear Stress in Intracranial Aneurysms

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Computational Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• High and low wall shear stress (WSS) are implicated in intracranial aneurysm (IA) development and rupture.
• Understanding the relationship between IA morphology and WSS is crucial for predicting IA behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify morphological factors influencing WSS within intracranial aneurysms (IAs) and parent arteries.
• To analyze the association between hemodynamic parameters and IA morphology.

Main Methods:

• Utilized three-dimensional imaging for 66 IAs.
• Constructed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to quantitatively assess hemodynamics.
• Grouped aneurysms by mean neck width and analyzed correlations between morphology and hemodynamics.

Main Results:

• Aspect ratio correlated significantly with lowest WSS, aneurysm-to-parent vessel (A-P) WSS ratio, and lowest-to-parent vessel (L-P) WSS ratio.
• Height-to-width ratio and height showed correlations with WSS.
• Lowest WSS and A-P WSS ratio were independently associated with neck width in multivariable analysis.

Conclusions:

• IA morphological characteristics are significantly associated with WSS in the IA and parent vessel.
• Aneurysms with varying neck widths exhibit distinct hemodynamic profiles.
• Findings may enhance understanding of IA progression and improve predictive models for IA rupture.