A simulation study on viscosity change effects in ultrasound based carotid atherosclerosis diagnosis

Common cardiovascular diseases like heart attack and stroke are the major cause of mortality and disability in recent decades. Increased blood viscosity is an independent risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. Elevated blood viscosity is associated with atherosclerosis and its growth. The knowledge of the arterial hemodynamics resulted due to atherosclerosis with different level of blood viscosity can clarify the relationship between artery stenosis and symptoms, and, finally, the risk of heart attack and stroke. Hence proficient imaging of blood flow has great clinical importance to understand the origin and evolution of disease. Therefore, investigation and detection of viscosity change and its effect might be helpful for better diagnosis of carotid atherosclerosis. In this simulation work, hemo-disturbances are studied in a carotid artery finite element model (FEM) with atherosclerosis under different viscosities consideration using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The obtained FEM data are used to reconstruct color flow image of blood velocities using ultrasound radio-frequency (RF) signals to study atherosclerosis detecting the viscosity changes. The findings of this study suggest that ultrasound based blood flow image can detect the viscosity change effect related to atherosclerosis growth. We think the findings will be helpful to develop effective ultrasound imaging technique for atherosclerosis diagnosis.