Computational and Experimental Investigation of Cerebral Protection Devices

Ender Finol, Institute for Complex Engineered Systems & Biomedical Engineering

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for 1.5 deaths reported per 1000 people. It is the most common and disabling cardiovascular disease affecting the elderly population, as there are more than half a million strokes per year in the U.S. alone. Ischemic strokes, caused by blockage of a blood vessel due to thrombus or atherosclerotic plaque represent 70-80% of all strokes. Of these, carotid artery occlusive diseases comprise 20-30% of such events.

Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is based on the selective cannulation of the common carotid artery by means of an introducer sheath or guiding catheter and the deployment of a wire mesh (stent) to treat the occluded artery segment. It is used with cerebral protection devices (CPDs) to capture the embolic particles released from the site of vessel injury for the prevention of neurological events.

The purpose of this project is to utilize computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques as a design optimization technique for cerebral protection devices to analyze blood flow through a carotid artery model that contains a deployed CPD. These computer simulations will be validated by performing bench-top experiments in vitro with silicone models of human carotid arteries to determine capture efficiency rates of emboli. Both types of flow simulations (computational and experimental) will be performed in Dr. Finol’s Computational and Experimental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory (CEFML). It is expected that this work will bring about new understanding of CPD performance and an assessment of device thrombosis potential.