Computational modelling for the embolization of brain arteriovenous malformations.

Piotr Orlowski, Paul Summers, J Alison Noble, James Byrne, Yiannis Ventikos

Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. piotr.orlowski@eng.ox.ac.uk

Medical engineering & physics 2012 Sep

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Treatment of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) of the brain often requires the injection of a liquid embolic material to reduce blood flow through the malformation. The type of the liquid and the location of injection have to be carefully planned in a pre-operative manner. We introduce a new model of the interaction of liquid embolic materials with blood for the simulation of their propagation and solidification in the AVM. Solidification is mimicked by an increase of the material's viscosity. Propagation is modelled by using the concept of two-fluids modelling and that of scalar transport. The method is tested on digital phantoms and on one anatomically derived patient AVM case. Simulations showed that intuitive behaviour of the two-fluid system can be confirmed and that two types of glue propagation through the malformation can be reproduced. Distinction between the two types of propagation could be used to identify fistulous and plexiform compartments composing the AVM and to characterize the solidification of the embolic material in them. Copyright © 2011 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Piotr Orlowski, Paul Summers, J Alison Noble, James Byrne, Yiannis Ventikos. Computational modelling for the embolization of brain arteriovenous malformations. Medical engineering & physics. 2012 Sep;34(7):873-81