Numerical simulation of fractional flow reserve in atherosclerotic coronary arteries

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the world with an incidence of about 30% of total mortality. It is a disease of the blood vessels of the heart that most often occurs due to the process of atherosclerosis. The process of atherosclerosis leads to narrowing of the coronary arteries, and thus to a reduced supply of blood or oxygen to the heart muscle. A fractional flow reserve (FFR) indicates the severity of blood flow blockages in the coronary arteries and allows physicians to identify which specific lesion or lesions are responsible for patient ischemia. In this paper, we studied the values of the FFR, using numerical simulations, on the geometries obtained by reconstructing the angiogram images.