Department of Descriptive and Clinical Anatomy, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Institute of Mechanics and Computational Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
J Biomech. 2021 Aug 26;125:110590. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2021.110590. Epub 2021 Jun 25.
The cerebral circulation is a common site of vascular lesions and concurrent hemodynamic accidents, which often lead to serious neurological disabilities. Recent advances in understanding pathogenesis, improving diagnostics and developing new treatment methods for these conditions result from an interdisciplinary approach to the problem - linking clinical sciences, basic medical sciences and hemodynamical analyses. Most common techniques used in such studies include computational fluid dynamics, which allows for development of 3D models of cerebral vasculature, basing on radiological studies. However, these methods remain flawed, mainly because of their spatial resolution, which is not high enough to visualize the smallest arterial branches (perforating branches) in the models. That leaves the perforators (<1.0 mm) out of most of the contemporary studies, whilst their clinical importance is widely recognized in clinical practice. Obstruction of these vessels by atherosclerotic plaques, thrombi or implantation of flow diverting stents may result in neurological complications such as paralysis or coma. Our research team has recently developed a new method of creating 3D models of the cerebral arterial system based on anatomical specimens and micro computed tomography (micro-CT). We have infused fresh brainstem vasculature specimens with contrast medium, subsequently scanned them using an industrial-grade micro-CT system and finally, created spatial models, which included branches of diameter less than 0.1 mm. None of the current methods have been able to produce models of detail as high as this, which allows us to presume, that our procedure may open up new opportunities for hemodynamical studies within cerebral circulation and beyond.
大脑循环是血管病变和并发血流动力学事件的常见部位，这常常导致严重的神经功能障碍。对这些病症的发病机制、改善诊断和开发新治疗方法的深入理解，源于对这一问题的跨学科方法——将临床科学、基础医学科学和血液动力学分析联系起来。此类研究中最常用的技术包括计算流体动力学，它允许根据放射学研究来开发大脑血管的 3D 模型。然而，这些方法仍然存在缺陷，主要是因为它们的空间分辨率不够高，无法在模型中可视化最小的动脉分支（穿透分支）。这使得穿透支（<1.0 毫米）在大多数当代研究中都无法被可视化，而它们在临床实践中的重要性已被广泛认可。这些血管被动脉粥样硬化斑块、血栓或血流导向支架阻塞，可能导致神经并发症，如瘫痪或昏迷。我们的研究团队最近开发了一种新的方法，基于解剖标本和微计算机断层扫描（micro-CT）来创建大脑动脉系统的 3D 模型。我们用对比剂灌注新鲜的脑干血管标本，随后使用工业级 micro-CT 系统对其进行扫描，最后创建了包括直径小于 0.1 毫米的分支的空间模型。目前还没有任何方法能够生成如此详细的模型，这使我们能够假设，我们的方法可能为大脑循环及其以外的血流动力学研究开辟新的机会。
