Validation of the Strain Assessment of a Phantom of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: Comparison of Results Obtained From Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Stereovision Measurements.

Predicting aortic aneurysm ruptures is a complex problem that has been investigated by many research teams over several decades. Work on this issue is notably complex and involves both the mechanical behavior of the artery and the blood flow. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide measurements concerning the shape of an organ and the blood that flows through it. Measuring local distortion of the artery wall is the first essential factor to evaluate in a ruptured artery. This paper aims to demonstrate the feasibility of this measure using MRI on a phantom of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with realistic shape. The aortic geometry is obtained from a series of cine-MR images and reconstructed using Mimics software. From 4D flow and MRI measurements, the field of velocity is determined and introduced into a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model to determine the mechanical boundaries applied on the wall artery (pressure and ultimately wall shear stress (WSS)). These factors are then converted into a solid model that enables wall deformations to be calculated. This approach was applied to a silicone phantom model of an AAA reconstructed from a patient's computed tomography-scan examination. The calculated deformations were then compared to those obtained in identical conditions by stereovision. The results of both methods were found to be close. Deformations of the studied AAA phantom with complex shape were obtained within a gap of 12% by modeling from MR data.

Comparison of the strain field of abdominal aortic aneurysm measured by magnetic resonance imaging and stereovision: a feasibility study for prediction of the risk of rupture of aortic abdominal aneurysm.

The prediction of the risk of rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a complex problem. Currently the criteria to predict rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysms are aneurysm diameter and growth rates. It is generally believed that study of the wall strain distribution could be helpful to find a better decision criterion for surgery of aortic aneurysms before their rupture. The wall strain distribution depends on many biological and biomechanical factors such as elastic properties of the aorta, turbulent blood flow, anatomy of the aorta, presence of thrombus or not and so on. Recently, numerical simulations to estimate rupture-potential have received many attentions. However, none of the medical imaging tools for screening and monitoring of AAAs were studied in terms of mechanical behavior and experimentally to demonstrate their capability to measure relevant variables. The aim of this study was to develop a metrological approach for deployment testing of the ability of techniques for measuring local in-vitro deformations based on comparison of stereovision and MRI. In this paper, we present the implementation approach and results of the study based on cylindrical phantoms with or without AAA representing, respectively, healthy and unhealthy artery. Through this study, an experimental device was developed for the behavior study of AAA during a cardiac cycle. The results show that the stereovision techniques used in laboratory is well suited and is qualitatively and quantitatively equivalent with MRI measurements.