APPLICATION OF PAK SOFTWARE FOR THE CALCULATION OF vFFR IN CORONARY ARTERIES

Abstract

X-ray angiography is one of the diagnostic procedures applied in clinical practice to analyze the state of patient-specific coronary arteries. During this examination a parameter called fractional flow reserve (FFR) is invasively measured to quantitatively assess the existence of potential stenosis and its significance. The software proposed in this paper presents an alternative method to calculate a virtual FFR equivalent and this approach can reduce the cost and invasiveness of the diagnostic approach. The angiography images are used to perform a 3D reconstruction of the coronary artery, the finite element mesh is automatically generated and an adapted PAK software is used to perform blood flow simulations and calculate the FFR equivalent. The calculated values and the clinically measured values of FFR are compared in order to validate the proposed methodology and a good agreement of results is obtained. Within the developed software the user is also provided with options to analyze the distribution of relevant hemodynamic parameters in the arterial tree, which makes it a useful tool that provides assistance in patient-specific treatment planning.