Development and the application of the physiological model of the cerebrovascular system based on the supply-demand relationship of the arteries and the tissues

Abstract

In recent years, much research on image-based blood flow simulation has been conducted to non-invasively and accurately predict the cerebrovascular diseases. To obtain reliable results, it is essential to set accurate boundary conditions that reflect the physiological conditions of the cerebrovascular system. For the cerebrovascular system, the boundary conditions have mainly been set using Murray’s law or measurements. However, Murray’s law is highly sensitive to the number of vessels and vessel radii, and it is difficult to measure in relatively small vessels. Therefore, the existing methods may not be suitable for multi-vessel or complex geometries. To extend blood flow simulation for actual diagnosis, a more reliable and robust boundary condition method is required. This study presents a physiological model of the cerebrovascular system based on a supply-demand relationship between arteries and tissues. To investigate the applicability of the developed model to the cerebrovascular system, blood flow distribution and perfusion territories of the major cerebral arteries of 40 healthy young patients were estimated and compared against the literature. Additional validation was performed with perfusion imaging. The developed model can predict cerebrovascular blood flow in a patient-specific manner using only medical imaging without measurements and can be used as boundary conditions to simulate blood flow in the cerebrovascular system. Future studies will validate the model with direct measurements.