BE/CDS/CIMMS Lunchtime Series: Characterization of coherent structures in large arteries

Dr. Shawn Shadden, Department of BioEngineering, Stanford University

The hemodynamic flow structures found in large vessels have implications to vascular diseases, vascular remodeling, and the distribution of nutrients or drugs.  Understanding these flow structures and how they accompany biologic response is for the most part unresolved. Advances in patient imaging are allowing qualitative assessments of flow structures in vivo. However, obtaining quantitative information or parametric analysis inevitably requires experimental or computational models.  Only recently have computational models been able to incorporate patient-specific geometry and boundary conditions, which are crucial to reproducing physiologic conditions. These computations often reveal complicated flow patterns. Previous success of the computation of time-dependent separatrices, known as LCS, in analyzing a range of unsteady fluid flow problems has motivated its application to analyzing blood flow. This talk will describe some of our recent progress on computing LCS in a few regions of the human vasculature. We will describe the insight added by these computations (over what was previously known), possible clinical implications, and future work.