Optimization of the Parameters of a Minimal Coagulation Model

The formation of a blood clot within a vessel can result in its complete blockage. This phenomenon, known as thrombosis, can have severe consequences. In contrary, thrombosis can be sometimes desirable. Intra-aneurysmal thrombosis is the primary objective of an endovascular treatment aimed at occluding the aneurysm sac. The proper modeling of the coagulation system is, therefore, important for the prediction, early recognition, and prevention of these tendencies. In silico investigations based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) extended by thrombosis models provide a valuable tool for a detailed analysis. Minimal models are particularly useful for practical purposes to reduce computational efforts. This work proposes an approach to adapt the parameters of a minimal model to reproduce the behavior obtained with a comprehensive description of the coagulation cascade. The objective is to obtain the same thrombin generation curves while reducing strongly computational costs. For this purpose, machine learning-based here on an evolutionary algorithm-is used to optimize the obtained agreement. By adapting the reaction rate coefficients, a significant improvement can be achieved. The obtained results pave the way for future applications of the improved model in complex configurations such as for planning personalized interventions. Notably, the minimal model will be used for CFD in future studies to take advantage of its low computational cost.