Validation of computational fluid dynamics simulation methods for venous pulsatile tinnitus

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in the investigation of hydroacoustic characteristics of pulsatile tinnitus (PT). However, a proper technique for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation has yet to be discussed. The primary goal of this paper was to investigate the intrasinus hydroacoustic characteristics of PT at the transverse-sigmoid junction (TSJ) using Doppler ultrasound and examine the validity of CFD techniques in simultaneity. The preoperative and intraoperative Doppler ultrasound were performed on a patient with PT at upper jugular vein and TSJ, respectively. Canonical CFD techniques were applied to solve the computational transverse-sigmoid sinus flow domain and compared with the Doppler’s measurements. In addition, the spectro-temporal analysis was performed for the sonification of PT. PT was associated with the recirculating flows at the TSJ according to ultrasonographic detection. This pathogenic region was characterized by a sudden deceleration of flow velocity and inverse increase of flow static pressure, which large eddy simulation (LES) resulted in the smallest 7.4% velocity difference compared to the measured Doppler data, albeit with little differences compared to other solvers. Therefore, based on this case study, the transient LES approach is an optimal CFD method for the computational simulation of the complex hemodynamics at the TSJ. Further numerical studies with large case series are warrranted.