A Study of Coronary Artery Disease in the Left Circumflex Artery via Artificial Vessel Restoration

Diagnosis, risk analysis, and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) can be improved with a better understanding of cardiovascular flows. Numerical simulations can assist in achieving this understanding. The objective of this study is to compare the dynamics of blood flow in a diseased left circumflex artery (LCX) and its artificially restored counterpart representing its healthy state. This comparison is made to identify flow characteristics in the restored vessel that contribute to the development of CAD. The diseased LCX geometry was derived from computed tomography angiography data. The stenosed region of the diseased LCX was repaired by manually redefining cross-sections of the vessel, creating the restored geometry. To account for inaccuracies, variations of the restored LCX were made by dilating the repaired surface. Numerical simulations were conducted on all geometries and the results were compared. Alongside expected low wall shear stress, a region of high vorticity was present in all of the restored vessels near the location where CAD developed in the diseased vessel. Therefore, this research suggests that flow vorticity is relevant in assessing the risk for CAD, potentially improving the accuracy of non-invasive, computational diagnosis. Such improvements can also help avoid unnecessary invasive diagnosis methods and minimize risk.