Novel risk predictor for thrombus deposition in abdominal aortic aneurysms

The identification of the basic mechanisms responsible for cardiovascular diseasesstands as one of the most challenging problems in modern medical research including variousmechanisms which encompass a broad spectrum of space and time scales. Major implicationsfor clinical practice and pre-emptive medicine rely on the onset and development of intraluminalthrombus in which effective clinical therapies require synthetic risk predictors/indicators capableof informing real-time decision-making protocols. In the present contribution, two novel hemodynamicssynthetic indicators, based on a three-band decomposition (TBD) of the shear stresssignal, are introduced. Extensive fluid-structure computer simulations of patient-specific scenariosconfirm the enhanced risk-prediction capabilities of the TBD indicators. In particular, theypermit a quantitative and accurate localization of the most likely thrombus deposition in realisticaortic geometries, where previous indicators would predict healthy operation. The proposedmethodology is also shown to provide additional information and discrimination criteria on otherfactors of major clinical relevance, such as the size of the aneurysm.