Anatomical flow phantoms of the nonplanar carotid bifurcation, Part I: Computer-aided Design and Fabrication

D.M. Watts, C.J. Sutcliffe, R.H. Morgan, S. Meagher, T. Poepping, J. Wardlaw, M. Connell, K. Ramnarine, P.R. Hoskins, R.A. Black

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    26 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Doppler ultrasound is widely used in the diagnosis and monitoring of arterial disease. Current clinical measurement systems make use of continuous and pulsed ultrasound to measure blood flow velocity; however, the uncertainty associated with these measurements is great, which has serious implications for the screening of patients for treatment. Because local blood flow dynamics depend to a great extent on the geometry of the affected vessels, there is a need to develop anatomically accurate arterial flow phantoms with which to assess the accuracy of Doppler blood flow measurements made in diseased vessels. In this paper, we describe the computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD-CAM) techniques that we used to fabricate anatomical flow phantoms based on images acquired by time-of-flight magnetic resonance imaging (TOF-MRI). Three-dimensional CAD models of the carotid bifurcation were generated from data acquired from sequential MRI slice scans, from which solid master patterns were made by means of stereolithography. Thereafter, an investment casting procedure was used to fabricate identical flow phantoms for use in parallel experiments involving both laser and Doppler ultrasound measurement techniques.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)296-302
    Number of pages6
    JournalUltrasound in Medicine and Biology
    Volume33
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2007

    Keywords

    • cardiovascular disease
    • computer modeling
    • carotid hemodynamics
    • stenosis
    • shear stress
    • bioengineering
    • ultrasound

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