Risk of thrombosis in patient vessels
Computational study of thrombotic risk in a Fontan vasculature.
Thrombosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). Patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has great potential as a tool to study blood flow and help the surgical decision-making process. The current study aims to contribute to understanding thrombus formation in a patient-specific total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC) by studying clinically relevant hemodynamic parameters. The unique contributions of this study are the inclusion of a turbulence model, the hepatic veins, patient-specific respiratory inflow waveforms, and the investigation of thrombotic risk at high shear rates. The investigated parameters include shear rates, elongation rates, localised normalised helicity, and two distinct approaches to compute particle age (Eulerian and Lagrangian). The results of this study indicate the presence of turbulence in the TCPC fontan circulation. Areas with an increased risk of high and low shear thrombus formation were detected in the investigated geometry. There is high shear thrombotic potential in the Fontan conduit and the junction of blood vessels at high flow rates, while there is low shear thrombotic potential in a part of the right pulmonary artery at low flow rates.
Related MSc thesis: L Schutte - Computational modelling of thrombotic risk in the Fontan circulation
Other publications: coming soon