Flow Dynamics of Blood in Vessels and Aneurysms

 

Christopher J. Brown

January 13, 1998

 

Advisors:

  • Dr.  Mikhail Agrest

Physics and Astronomy, College of Charleston
  • Dr.  Diana Vincent,

Radiology and Neurology, MUSC
  • Dr.  Joseph Horton, MD

Radiology and Neurology, MUSC

 

Aneurysms are a dilatation, or out-pouching, along diseased blood vessel walls.  These develop into distended sacs of stretched arterial tissue.  The aneurysm is a result of hemodynamic forces, not yet well understood, but possibly stress from pulsatile flow and blood pressure.  Aneurysms most often occur at bifurcations of an artery.  The goal within the medical community is to stop blood flow within the aneurysm, thus clotting the aneurysm and excluding it from contact with the normal circulation and shrinking it.  The most favorable techniques to control the flow within the aneurysm are noninvasive.  To learn what methods are most desirable to create this procedure, blood flow within the aneurysm and the vessel must be understood.  Blood flow in the vessel and the aneurysm can be studied through the construction and examination of physiologically accurate physical models.  The physical models allow flexibility in aneurysm size and shape as well as vessel size that will yield a wide variety of data.  Using the model aneurysms and a spectrophotometer the flowrate of fluid was experimentally determined by measuring the concentration of dye after exiting the aneurysm.

 

 

 

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