(340a) Numerical Study of Hemodynamics in the Carotid Artery before and after Angioplasty with Stenting Using Different Rheological Models

The carotid arteries are the main source of the blood to the brain and any problem in its structure can cause harm to the individual. Among the disorders that may represent an irregularity there is stenosis, which is the narrowing of the blood vessel and one of the causes of stroke and transient ischemic attack. The angioplasty with stenting is one of the most used surgical procedures in the treatment of atherosclerosis, a disease that consists in the accumulation of fat in the walls of the blood vessel. Even presenting a severe carotid stenosis, the patient can be both symptomatic and asymptomatic, demonstrating the importance of monitoring the problem and its causes. In this context, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been employed as a powerful tool in the investigation of flow behavior in arteries and veins, especially in the characterization of areas predisposed to deviate from normality, such as stenosis. In the mathematical modeling, however, the representation of blood in arteries as a Newtonian or non-Newtonian fluid is still under study. In order to investigate the numerical difference arising from the modeling of blood viscosity in the hemodynamics of the carotid artery before and after angioplasty with stenting, geometries based on clinical exams of a patient were used. Thus, besides characterizing the numerical differences resulting from the change in rheological model, it was possible to highlight areas prone to the occurrence of stenosis and restenosis in each case.