SimVascular is open source, blood flow analysis software, that is developed at Stanford University in the US. An example of calculation using SimVascular is below.

Calculation example of aortic coarctation

We used SimVascular to calculate the case of aortic coarctation and the case of inserting a stent into the coarctation.  Calculations were performed by specifying the flow rate into the aorta when sitting and when exercising.

aortic coarctation (displacement expanded by 3 times).

 a stent is inserted into the coarctation (displacement is expanded three times).

We investigated the flow rate below the coarctation of the aorta in cases of coarctation of the aorta (CoA), cases in which a stent was placed in the coarctation, and cases of normal coarctation.

In the case of aortic coarctation, the maximum value was reduced by approximately 35% compared to the normal case. In addition, when a stent was placed in the coarctation area, the results were almost the same as in the case of normal coarctation.

We investigated the flow rate below the coarctation during exercise.

The results were similar during exercise. In the case of aortic coarctation, the maximum value was reduced by approximately 35% compared to the normal case.

In addition, the flow velocity at the coarctation area during exercise exceeded 2 m.