Qamar Adnan, Warnez Matthew, Valassis Doug T, Guetzko Megan E, Bull Joseph L
a Biomedical Engineering , University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , MI , USA .
b Mechanical Engineering , University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , MI , USA .
Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin. 2017 Aug;20(11):1182-1194. doi: 10.1080/10255842.2017.1340466. Epub 2017 Jun 28.
Simulations of small bubbles traveling through symmetric bifurcations are conducted to garner information pertinent to gas embolotherapy, a potential cancer treatment. Gas embolotherapy procedures use intra-arterial bubbles to occlude tumor blood supply. As bubbles pass through bifurcations in the blood stream nonhomogeneous splitting and undesirable bioeffects may occur. To aid development of gas embolotherapy techniques, a volume of fluid method is used to model the splitting process of gas bubbles passing through artery and arteriole bifurcations. The model reproduces the variety of splitting behaviors observed experimentally, including the bubble reversal phenomenon. Splitting homogeneity and maximum shear stress along the vessel walls is predicted over a variety of physical parameters. Small bubbles, having initial length less than twice the vessel diameter, were found unlikely to split in the presence of gravitational asymmetry. Maximum shear stresses were found to decrease exponentially with increasing Reynolds number. Vortex-induced shearing near the bifurcation is identified as a possible mechanism for endothelial cell damage.
进行了小气泡通过对称分支的模拟，以获取与气体栓塞疗法相关的信息，气体栓塞疗法是一种潜在的癌症治疗方法。气体栓塞治疗程序使用动脉内气泡来阻塞肿瘤血液供应。当气泡在血流中通过分支时，可能会发生不均匀分裂和不良生物效应。为了辅助气体栓塞治疗技术的发展，采用了流体体积法来模拟气泡通过动脉和小动脉分支的分裂过程。该模型再现了实验中观察到的各种分裂行为，包括气泡反转现象。预测了在各种物理参数下沿血管壁的分裂均匀性和最大剪应力。发现初始长度小于血管直径两倍的小气泡在存在重力不对称的情况下不太可能分裂。发现最大剪应力随雷诺数增加呈指数下降。分支附近的涡激剪切被确定为内皮细胞损伤的一种可能机制。
