Abstract—Wall shear stress is the most prominent hemodynamic parameter associated with intracranial aneurysm rupture. Since low as well as high shear theories still coexist, the aim of this study was to investigate several shear related variables on datasets with multiple intracranial aneurysms.
Therefore, two patient-specific anterior circulations of the human cerebral vascular system were reconstructed, containing two and three intracranial aneurysms, respectively. The hemodynamic simulations are based on flow rates measured by means of 7-Tesla PC-MRI. Since a rupture occurred in both cases and the affected aneurysms could be identified, the evaluation of time-averaged wall shear stresses, their gradients as well as the oscillatory shear indices mainly focuses on a comparison between ruptured and unruptured aneurysms.
Areas of low and elevated shear were found in all cases and no correlation with rupture was identified. However, the ruptured aneurysms feature significantly higher directional changes of the shear vector associated to a stronger flow oscillation. This observation suggests that a combination of low average shear stresses wit increased oscillations is present in ruptured aneurysms. In that case, wall shear stress cannot be used exclusively in order to predict the rupture probability and the oscillatory shear index should be taken into account, probably as one of several additional indicators.

Index Terms—CFD, hemodynamics, intracranial aneurysms, wall shear stress.

P. Berg, G. Janiga, and D. Thévenin are with the Department of Fluid Dynamics and Technical Flows, University of Magdeburg, Germany (e-mail: Philipp.Berg@ovgu.de).
O. Beuing is with the Department of Neuroradiology, University Hospital of Magdeburg, Germany (e-mail: Oliver.Beuing@med.ovgu.de).
M. Neugebauer is with the Department of Simulation and Graphics, University of Magdeburg, Germany (e-mail: mathias@isg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de).

 

Cite:P. Berg, G. Janiga, O. Beuing, M. Neugebauer, and D. Thévenin, "Hemodynamics in Multiple Intracranial Aneurysms: The Role of Shear Related to Rupture," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 177-181, 2013.