Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) from Patient-Generated Images

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an irreversible dilation, i.e., ballooning, of an artery due to gradual wall weakening. It represents a common vascular pathology with possibly fatal implications in which the aneurysm expands and may eventually rupture. In the current clinical management of AAA patients, the maximum transverse dimension of the aneurysm (5.5 cm diameter) is often used as the primary indicator of rupture potential. Repair is warranted when the risk of rupture exceeds that of the repair as to justify an elective surgical resection. There is a need to more accurately predict the risk of rupture based on patient specific parameters, because aneurysms smaller than 5.5 cm rupture and larger ones can remain intact. Consequently, patient specific AAA FSI simulations are carried out, with anisotropic wall materials. The use of an anisotropic material model used closely models experimental results for the stress strain relationship. Results show peak wall stresses are dependent on the shape of the AAA geometry and the region of highest stress corresponds to expected failure location.

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