In-stent restenosis
The COAST project developed a multiscale model for in-stent restenosis (ISR). A stenosis is a narrowing of a blood vessel lumen due to the presence of an atherosclerotic plaque. This can be corrected by balloon angioplasty, after which a stent (usually a metal mesh) is deployed to prevent the vessel from collapsing. The injury caused by the stent can lead to a maladaptive biological response of the cellular tissue (mainly smooth muscle cells). The abnormal growth can produce a new stenosis which is called ISR. ISR is an important problem, about 10% of patients being treated with balloon angioplasty and stenting suffer from ISR. With 750000 deaths per year in Europe due to cardiovascular disorders, the scale and relevance of the problem is substantial. COAST delivered two-dimensional and three-dimensional multiscale simulation of ISR. The recently started MeDDiCa project will further study ISR in 2D and in collaboration with this project with 3D simulations, in order to better understand ISR and to develop increased stent designs that would minimize ISR.
We will port the 3D ISR multiscale application to the MAPPER infrastructure, and try to validate the 3D version of the model against histological data. We will then work with MeDDiCa to allow them to take up the software and use it to further study ISR in more detail than currently possible. Read More »
Patient-specific whole brain blood flow simulations
The area of intracranial hemodynamic simulation has become popular over the last decade, however the models used are typically un-coupled and single-scale. They focus on simulating the arterial vessels of the order of 1mm to 5mm in diameter, simplistic assumptions are often made on the properties of blood, and the vessels themselves are treated as solid pipes with no wall compliance, where in fact living blood vessels change and develop over time in response
to changes in pressure and velocity, resulting in, for example the growth of aneurysms. The process of blood flow however is a truly multi-scale system.
In the area of patient specific blood flow modelling we have two aims. Firstly, to couple our cranial-blood flow model HemeLB with a same scale sub-cranial model. Secondly to develop a tool that can quantify the oxygen supply in tissues using patient-specific blood flow models.
We will work with ContraCancrum to allow them to use a coupled HemeLB cellular diffusion model to further study oxygen and cis platinum transport through cancerous tissue in more detail than currently possible. Read More »