3D Model of Blood Flow Could Help Predict Heart Attacks

Computer software that accurately models the complex interactions of blood flow in the heart, at a precision of 10 µm, could eventually lead to early detection of arteriosclerosis.

Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL; Switzerland) using the 16,000-microprocessor Cadmos supercomputer, proprietary software, and a detailed heart scan, were able to simultaneously process over a billion different variables and generate a coronary blood-flow model that simulates the dynamics of approximately ten-million red blood cells (RBCs). And by using another supercomputer, based at the Jülich Research Center (Germany), the research team then achieved an even greater precision, allowing the visualization of the subtle interactions between plasma, RBCs, and even microparticles.


To generate the simulation, the researchers employed molecular dynamics and Lattice Boltzmann methods--a class of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models--to simulate the flow of a Newtonian fluid with various collision models. By simulating streaming and collision processes across a limited number of particles, the intrinsic particle interactions showed a microcosm of viscous flow behavior applicable across the greater mass. The software developed could also be used to generate personal, patient-specific models, demanding up to six hours of processing, and will allow for a detailed study of an individual's cardiovascular system and early predictions of heart conditions and their role in myocardial infarction (MI). Plans are also in the works to develop the software program for use on personal computers (PCs), which could make clinical applications possible within the next two to three years.

"When studying the blood flow in arteries, one has to take into account a vast number of different fluid interactions that happen on different time scales and of different sizes,” said project leader doctoral candidate Simone Melchionna, M.Sc., of the laboratory of multiscale modeling of materials at EPFL. "We can evaluate all of the elements and how they interact with each other; move, stagnate and whirl and turn over each other.”

A Newtonian fluid (named after Sir Isaac Newton) is a fluid whose stress versus strain rate curve is linear and passes through the origin; the constant of proportionality is known as the viscosity of the liquid. For example, water is Newtonian, because it continues to exemplify fluid properties no matter how fast it is stirred or mixed, and regardless of the forces acting on it.

Related Links:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Jülich Research Center