Due to the current advances in the field of medical imaging and an increase of MR and CT brain scans as part of diagnostic procedures, the number of cerebral aneurysm findings is rising. These dilated parts of cerebral arteries exhibit a high risk of rupture, which can lead to internal bleedings with fatal consequences for the patient (mortality rate: up to 60%). To reduce the risk for the patient most of the interventions are performed minimal invasive by filling the aneurysm with small metal coils (Coiling) and stabilizing them with a tubular metal mesh (Stent) if necessary. Since the intervention itself involves the risk of causing an internal bleeding, a detailed risk estimation and a deeper insight into the blood flow dynamics, that influence the development of cerebral aneurysms, is crucial. In current research computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is the common approach to gain a better understanding for the dynamic characteristics of the internal blood flow.
The result of the CFD simulation is a multidimensional and often time dependent dataset. Our aim is to develop an application-specific pipeline to make this complex data accessible to medical researchers. Besides different approaches to visualize the flow characteristics this pipeline also needs to contain the analysis of morphological features and their relation to the flow characteristics. One application of this pipeline is the creation of expressive comparison visualizations in order to gain insight into the development of an aneurysm over time or into the affect a change in the incoming blood-flow has onto the whole dynamic system. Due to the interdisciplinary character of this research area we are working together with Institute of Neuroradiology (medical experts), the Institute of Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics (CFD simulation), the Image Processing Workgroup (segmentation), the Institute of Electronics, Signal Processing and Communication Technology (evaluation of the CFD simulation). In October 2008 this cooperation formed the base for the Mobestan project supported by the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
A short summarization of our current field of research:
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Semi-/automatic extraction and visualization of morphological information and flow features
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Guided exploration and overview visualization of complex flow datasets
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Focus & Context visualization of cerebral vasculature
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Combined (internal flow data & surface morphology) and comparing (change over time, after stent application, etc.) visualizations
Publications
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