Impact of flow diverters on side branches : an analysis based on computational fluid dynamics approach

![CDATA[Purpose: To investigate the haemodynamic influences on side branches by using flow diversion devices (FDD) . Materials and Methods: CT angiograms from seven patients were adopted to perform computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The arteries of bilateral vertebral arteries (VA), basilar artery (BA), bilateral anterior inferior cerebellar arteries (AICA), bilateral superior cerebellar arteries (SCA), and bilateral posterior cerebral arteries (PCA) were reconstructed by using MIMICS 14.0 software. The mesh of FDD was simulated as a porous medium. The mass flow in AICAs was calculated before and after deployment of FDD. The validation was performed by using different output bundaries. Statistical analysis was performed to investigate the difference of FDD treatment. Results: Six patients had bilateral AICAs while one patient had just one AICA, which thus yielded 13 sets of data were available for the analysis. The mean mass flow reduction of AICAs due to the FDD deployment was 4.1±1.8%. The validation process to confirm the influence from outflow pressure boundary condition was carried out, and the result indicated that there was no significant difference from outflow pressure alternation. Conclusion: FDD development in BA had little impact on the side branches in terms of blood mass flow into AICAs, which could reach the mass flow reduction only around 4%.]]