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Effect of aortic spiral blood flow on wall shear stress in stenosed left main coronary arteries with varying take-off angle, stenosis severity and eccentricity

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Abstract

It is well accepted that blood flow in the human aorta is spiral by nature, with beneficial impacts for the cardiovascular system in the form of improved haemodynamics and efficient perfusion. This study investigates the effect of aortic spiral blood flow on wall shear stress (WSS) in computer-generated models of the left main trunk (LMT), also known as left main coronary artery, with varying take-off angle, stenosis severity and eccentricity. The results show that the spirality effect causes a substantial reduction in maximum WSS (WSSmax), average WSS (WSSave) and size of regions with low WSS. The effects of spiral flow on WSSmax become more significant with increasing LMT take-off angle and stenosis eccentricity, and they become less significant with increasing stenosis severity. The aortic spiral blood flow intensity, LMT take-off angle, stenosis severity and eccentricity statistically significantly predict the WSS; however, the strongest predictor of WSS is stenosis severity (F(4, 399) = 3653.85, p < 0.001 for WSSmax and F(4, 399) = 913.46, p < 0.001 for WSSave), followed by LMT take-off angle (F(4, 399) = 582.735, p < 0.001 for WSSmax and F(4, 399) = 163.16, p < 0.001 for WSSave), stenosis eccentricity (F(4, 399) = 230.15, p < 0.001 for WSSmax and F(4, 399) = 52.94, p < 0.001 for WSSave) and blood flow spirality (F(4, 399) = 112.37, p < 0.001 for WSSmax and F(4, 399) = 32.18, p < 0.001 for WSSave). Our findings suggest that naturally or artificially induced spiral flow in the aorta potentially has atheroprotective effects in the LMT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Abouzar Moshfegh & Ashkan Javadzadegan

  2. ANZAC Research Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2139, Australia

    Abouzar Moshfegh & Ashkan Javadzadegan

  3. School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Zhaoqi Zhang

  4. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran

    Hamid Hassanzadeh Afrouzi & Mohammad Omidi

Authors
  1. Abouzar Moshfegh
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  2. Ashkan Javadzadegan
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  4. Hamid Hassanzadeh Afrouzi
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  5. Mohammad Omidi
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Correspondence to Abouzar Moshfegh.

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Recommended by Associate Editor Sung-Jin Kim

Abouzar Moshfegh, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D., is currently a research fellow at Macquarie University and honorary hospital scientist at ANZAC research institute, Australia. His Ph.D. was attained from University of Sydney in multiscale simulation of fluid dynamics, and later on he continued active research in biomedical engineering and haemodynamic modelling of pathophysiology of cardiovascular disorders.

Ashkan Javadzadegan is a biomedical engineer, with a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Sydney (Australia). He currently holds a Research Fellowship position at Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University (Australia). His main research interests are medical image processing and cardiovascular biomechanics.

Zhaoqi Zhang received his Master of Professional Engineering (Biomedical) from University of Sydney, Australia, in 2018. His research interests include computational fluid dynamics of cardiovascular system and finite element analysis of arterial stent.

Hamid Hassanzadeh Afrouzi received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Babol Noushirvani University of Technology, Iran, in 2018. His research interests include Meso scale simulation techniques such as LBM and DPD in biomedical engineering and heat transfer applications.

Mohammad Omidi received his Master’s degree in mechanical Engineering from Babol Noushirvani University of Technology, Iran, in 2016. His research interests include computational fluid dynamic of thermal and biomedical engineering.

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Moshfegh, A., Javadzadegan, A., Zhang, Z. et al. Effect of aortic spiral blood flow on wall shear stress in stenosed left main coronary arteries with varying take-off angle, stenosis severity and eccentricity. J Mech Sci Technol 32, 4003–4011 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-0751-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-0751-2

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