Multi-modality imaging for the simulation of cerebral aneurysm blood flow dynamics

Cerebral aneurysms are pathological local expansions of intracranial arteries. These expansions can affect only a portion of the artery wall (sidewall aneurysms), the whole wall (fusiform aneurysm) or can occur at the bifurcation of arteries (bifurcation aneurysm, Fig. 1). The size of these aneurysms can vary ranging from a few millimeters (small) to centimeters (large). While symptoms of cerebral aneurysms may include ischemic events, seizures, headaches or cranial nerve palsy, sometimes, aneurysms may not show any symptoms at all. The real danger of a cerebral aneurysm is rupture, an event, in which blood exits the aneurysm wall into the brain parenchyma, resulting in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). SAH is the reason of about 8% of all hemorrhagic strokes (the third leading cause of death in the United States), and 4/5 of all SAH occurrences are caused by the rupture of a cerebral aneurysm [1, 2].