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Modelling evolution and the evolving mechanical environment of saccular cerebral aneurysms

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Abstract

A fluid–solid-growth (FSG) model of saccular cerebral aneurysm evolution is developed. It utilises a realistic two-layered structural model of the internal carotid artery and explicitly accounts for the degradation of the elastinous constituents and growth and remodelling (G&R) of the collagen fabric. Aneurysm inception is prescribed: a localised degradation of elastin results in a perturbation in the arterial geometry; the collagen fabric adapts, and the artery achieves a new homeostatic configuration. The perturbation to the geometry creates an altered haemodynamic environment. Subsequent degradation of elastin is explicitly linked to low wall shear stress (WSS) in a confined region of the arterial domain. A sidewall saccular aneurysm develops, the collagen fabric adapts and the aneurysm stabilises in size. A quasi-static analysis is performed to determine the geometry at diastolic pressure. This enables the cyclic stretching of the tissue to be quantified, and we propose a novel index to quantify the degree of biaxial stretching of the tissue. Whilst growth is linked to low WSS from a steady (systolic) flow analysis, a pulsatile flow analysis is performed to compare steady and pulsatile flow parameters during evolution. This model illustrates the evolving mechanical environment for an idealised saccular cerebral aneurysm developing on a cylindrical parent artery and provides the guidance to more sophisticated FSG models of aneurysm evolution which link G&R to the local mechanical stimuli of vascular cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PJ, UK

    P. N. Watton, A. Selimovic, P. Huang & Y. Ventikos

  2. ETH, Zurich, Switzerland

    N. B. Raberger

  3. Institute of Biomechanics, Center of Biomedical Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Kronesgasse 5-I, 8010, Graz, Austria

    G. A. Holzapfel

  4. Department of Solid Mechanics, School of Engineering Sciences, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden

    G. A. Holzapfel

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  1. P. N. Watton
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  2. A. Selimovic
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  3. N. B. Raberger
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  4. P. Huang
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  5. G. A. Holzapfel
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  6. Y. Ventikos
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Correspondence to P. N. Watton.

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Watton, P.N., Selimovic, A., Raberger, N.B. et al. Modelling evolution and the evolving mechanical environment of saccular cerebral aneurysms. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 10, 109–132 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-010-0221-y

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