An Investigation of Hemodynamic Function in Realistic Coronary Arteries: Preliminary Study Representing the Actual Psychodynamic

Abstract

This study analyses coronary circulation under normal heart rate conditions based on a realistic patient data. The left coronary artery and its branches of a healthy patient has been selected in the study to generate realistic geometry data. The models, composed of artery branches, are produced from raw CT scans (DICOM files converted to Hex-meshed models). The computational fluid dynamics package, OpenFOAM was used to perform the simulation. Inlet boundary conditions were a volumetric flow rate of 120ml/min/100g, 1,060 kg/m3 of blood density, 0.0027 pa s of blood viscosity, incompressible flow, steady flow simulation and no-slip condition at wall. We present flow field data, (flow rate, wall pressure and wall shear stress), for use as a baseline model of the hemodynamic behaviour of the coronary arteries of the healthy patients. The results of this study represent the actual effect on patients in terms of flow pattern, flow rate, wall pressure and wall shear stress. This preliminary data has been produced in order to provide a baseline against which to compare diseased coronary blood flow data. This study will be used as a baseline for further studies analysing coronary disease (such as calcification or stenosis) to provide a 'healthy' dataset.