An Automated Workflow for Hemodynamic Computations in Cerebral Aneurysms

Abstract

In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become a valuable tool for investigating hemodynamics in cerebral aneurysms. CFD provides flow-related quantities, which have been shown to have a potential impact on aneurysm growth and risk of rupture. However, the adoption of CFD tools in clinical settings is currently limited by the high computational cost and the engineering expertise required for employing these tools, e.g., for mesh generation, appropriate choice of spatial and temporal resolution, and of boundary conditions. Herein, we address these challenges by introducing a practical and robust methodology, focusing on computational performance and minimizing user interaction through automated parameter selection. We propose a fully automated pipeline that covers the steps from a patient-specific anatomical model to results, based on a fast, graphics processing unit- (GPU-) accelerated CFD solver and a parameter selection methodology. We use a reduced order model to compute the initial estimates of the spatial and temporal resolutions and an iterative approach that further adjusts the resolution during the simulation without user interaction. The pipeline and the solver are validated based on previously published results, and by comparing the results obtained for 20 cerebral aneurysm cases with those generated by a state-of-the-art commercial solver (Ansys CFX, Canonsburg PA). The automatically selected spatial and temporal resolutions lead to results which closely agree with the state-of-the-art, with an average relative difference of only 2%. Due to the GPU-based parallelization, simulations are computationally efficient, with a median computation time of 40 minutes per simulation.