Accurately Modeling Blood Flow in The Carotid Artery Using A Fluid Simulation

Abstract

This experiment sought to find a non-invasive method to locate a blood clot along the internal carotid artery (ICA) by using principles of fluid mechanics. An algorithm was made that converted systolic and diastolic blood pressure into rate of flow, flow velocity, and eventually a set of Reynold’s Numbers plotted against the length along the ICA. The Reynold’s Numbers were then analyzed to find where the flow was transient (2300 < Re < 4000) and a range was produced by taking the maximum Reynold’s Number below 4000 and assigning it to a certain length (e.g., 3.1 cm being assigned to 3987.2) and taking the minimum Reynold’s Number above 2300 then assigning it to a certain length along the ICA. The ranges were ascertained for four different blood pressures, which were classified as “NORM,” “>NORM,” “>>NORM,” and “>>>NORM,” (120 / 80, 135 / 90, 156 / 98, and 180 / 120, respectively). The ranges were plotted, and the midpoint of the minimum and the maximum was taken as the predicted value. It was shown that there is a significant relationship between the ranges and blood pressure (systolic: R² = 0.9915, diastolic: R² = 0.9797). Finally, there was significant evidence to reject the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between blood pressure and the length at which a clot will be along the ICA.

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