Newtonian and non-Newtonian CFD Models of Intracranial Aneurysm: A Review

Abstract

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has become an essential research tool to investigate the physical, biophysical and pathophysiological processes leading to the formation, growth and rupture of intracranial aneurysms (IAs). The diverse anatomical complexities of IAs dictate a staggering level of sophistication inherited in the CFD modeling process. From medical imaging to wall shear stress mapping on the aneurysm walls, there are numerous physical assumptions related to blood flow and wall dynamics. The majority of such assumptions remain controversial until today. This review is an endeavor to summarize, in a critical and comprehensive manner, the different assumptions used to calculate blood viscosity in CFD models of IA hemodynamics. The tabulated summaries of literature presented herein also highlight the inconsistency of location choice and imaging techniques used to select IA models for CFD studies. This review presents a roadmap for the state-of-the art knowledge about blood viscosity models used with IA CFD models, and suggests future research directions to further characterize the nature of blood flow which contributes to the improvement of diagnosis and management of IAs.