Events

Dr. Paul Watton, Modelling the Evolution of Vascular Disease: Aneurysms

Date: Wednesday 24 July 2013 15:00 - 16:00

Location: SEMS Seminar Room (3rd Floor of the Engineering Building)

Dr. Paul Watton, Department of Computer Science & INSIGNEO Institute of in silico Medicine
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

In this talk, I will present a general computational framework for modelling vascular disease and illustrate its application to modelling the evolution of abdominal aortic and cerebral aneurysms [1, 2]. Aneurysms appear as dilations of the arterial wall and generally occur in the intracranial arteries and the abdominal aorta. Intracranial aneurysms (IAs) occur on the side or at bifurcations of brain arteries and appear like small berries inflated by the pressure of the blood. Although the aetiology of IA and AAA differs, if left untreated, both types of aneurysm may rupture with associated high levels of morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, interventional procedures are not without risk. This presents a dilemma for the clinician: is intervention necessary or desirable? Hence there is a need to develop robust rupture risk indicators for aneurysms to identify the subjects who would actually benefit from intervention. It is envisaged that models of evolution may assist in this ambition [1,2]. However, whilst such models are proving useful to explore hypotheses relating to the underlying mechanobiology of the arterial wall, further sophistications are needed for them to realise application within a clinical setting. Future directions for research [3] will be discussed.

[1] Watton PN, Ventikos Y, Holzapfel GA (2011) Modelling Cerebral Aneurysm Evolution. In: T. McGloughlin (ed.) Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Aneurysms, Springer-Verlag. 7:373-399.

[2] Watton PN, Huang H, Ventikos Y (2013) Multiscale Modelling of Vascular Disease: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Evolution, In: L. Geris (ed.) Computational modelling in Tissue Engineering, Springer-Verlag.10:303-339

[3] Robertson AM, Watton PN (2012) Computational Fluid Dynamics of Cerebral Aneurysms: Critical Reflections, Future Directions, AJNR American Journal of Neuroradiology, 33(6):992-995.

SEMS/IoB Seminar Series
Coffee/tea/biscuits provided after the seminar