Effect of microcirculatory dysfunction on coronary hemodynamics: A pilot study based on computational fluid dynamics simulation

Yingyi Geng, Haipeng Liu, Xinhong Wang, Jucheng Zhang, Yinglan Gong, Dingchang Zheng, Jun Jiang, Ling Xia

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    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Background Invasively measured fractional flow reserve (FFR) and index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) are gold standards for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) and coronary microcirculatory dysfunction (CMD). However, the interaction between CAD and CMD has not been comprehensively investigated. We aim to non-invasively investigate hemodynamic effect of CMD in nonobstructive CAD cases using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Method This study employed CFD simulations on six cases with nonobstructive CAD and CMD in left anterior descending artery (LAD) territories. Two microcirculatory situations were simulated: normal microcirculatory resistance (MR) situation; CMD situation where MR at the outlets of LAD branches were multiplied by the ratio of clinically measured IMR to the cutoff value. Blood flow, translesional pressure drop ( Δ p tl ), and simulated FFR (FFRCT) of LAD and non-culprit branches were compared between the two microcirculatory situations using Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results The results are in accordance with existing studies and clinical measurements. Compared with normal MR, there were significant decreases in outlet flow velocity and increases in FFRCT (p < 0.01 for both in Wilcoxon signed rank tests) in LAD branches with CMD, with minor decreases (0.63–5.64 mmHg) in Δ p tl . There was no significant influence on outlet flow velocity ( < 2%) and FFRCT ( < 0.02) in non-culprit branches (p > 0.05 for both). Conclusion IMR-based CFD simulation could estimate hemodynamic effects of CMD. CMD in a coronary artery branch can decrease its blood flow and Δ p tl , increase its FFR, with little effect on non-culprit branches.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number105583
    Number of pages11
    JournalComputers in Biology and Medicine
    Volume146
    Early online date4 May 2022
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 2022

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under grant number 61527811 and 61701435 , the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province under grant number 2020C03016 , the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number LY17H180003 , and the Major Scientific Project of Zhejiang Lab under grant number 2020ND8AD01 .

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2022 The Authors

    Keywords

    • Myocardial ischemia
    • Fractional flow reserve (FFR)
    • Index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR)
    • Coronary microcirculatory dysfunction (CMD)
    • computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

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