Hemodynamic Phenotypes of Anatomically Realistic Terminal Aneurysms

Intracranial aneurysms occur in approximately 4% of the population. While advances in medical imaging and surgical procedures have led to improved diagnosis and treatment, the decision of whether or not too treat an unruptured aneurysm is still largely subjective. The size of the aneurysm combined with its location and shape are the major determining factors, along with experience, when considering treatment. There is increasing recognition that hemodynamic forces play a key role in the life cycle of an aneurysm; however, it is difficult to provide this information in the clinic, owing to the need for time-consuming computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A more pragmatic solution, for now at least, may be to predict the gross flow patterns (“hemodynamic phenotype”) from simpler-to-measure geometric parameters.