Biology and hemodynamics of aneurismal vasculopathies

Abstract

Aneurysm vasculopathies represents a group of vascular disorders that share a common morphological diagnosis: a vascular dilation, the aneurysm. They can have a same etiology and a different clinical presentation or morphology, or have different etiology and very similar anatomical geometry. The biology of the aneurysm formation is a complex process that will be a result of an endogenous predisposition and epigenetic factors later on including the intracranial hemodynamics. We describe the biology of saccular aneurysms, its growth and rupture, as well as, current concepts of hemodynamics derived from application of computational flow dynamics on patient specific vascular models. Furthermore, we describe different aneurysm phenotypes and its extremely variability on morphological and etiological presentation.

Keywords: ACA; CFD; CT; Cerebral vasculopathy; Hemodynamics; Intracranial aneurysm; MCA; MRI; Rupture; SAH; Wall disease and angiography; anterior communicating artery; computational flow dynamics; computed tomography; magnetic resonance imaging; middle cerebral artery; subarachnoid hemorrhage.