Numerical assessment of device-related thrombus formation triggered by the contact system

International audienceThrombosis is a major concern in blood-coated medical devices. In the present study, pro-coagulantreactions including the contact activation system are coupled with a fluid solver as well as arecently proposed thrombus formation model. The resulting biochemical/fluid model is applied to abackward facing step configuration, a flow configuration that frequently appears in medicaldevices. Simulations show that the contact system induces a large concentration of thrombin is therecirculation zone without the need of an a priori knowledge of the thrombus location. Platelets arethen chemically activated and generate a thrombus whose both position and growth rate are in goodagreement with the experimental data available