i IMAGE-BASED QUANTIFICATION WORKFLOW FOR CORONARY MORPHOLOGY: A TOOL FOR USE IN NEXT-GENERATION BIFURCATION STENT DESIGN by

Coronary artery disease (CAD) occurs in ~200,000 bifurcation lesions annually. Treatment of CAD near bends and bifurcations is challenging and a preferred strategy for bifurcation lesions has yet to be established. However, a favorable treatment option may be elucidated by a more thorough understanding of vessel morphology as well as local hemodynamic alterations caused by current stenting approaches. Computational modeling of human arteries offers an attractive way to investigate the relationships between geometry, hemodynamics and vascular disease. Recent developments also make it possible to perform analysis on realistic geometries acquired noninvasively. The objective of this work was twofold. The first aim was to build on previous work in this area by quantifying hemodynamic alterations introduced by treatment of an idealized coronary bifurcation using several approaches that involve multiple stents. Each model was created using combined computer aided design techniques and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tools. Resting and hyperemic blood flow conditions were also studied to determine the severity of local hemodynamic alterations and for comparison to previous results. Indices of time-averaged wall shea