Effect of non-Newtonian blood flow on coronary artery hemodynamics in a cohort of patients with stenosed artery

Wall shear stress (WSS) distribution in stenosed arteries has been known as an important hemodynamic factor to correlate with atherosclerosis and associated disturbances in blood flow. WSS depends on various factors such as geometric complexity and tortuosity of the artery, stenosis severity and morphology as well as blood rheological properties. We conducted a numerical simulation of blood flow using Ansys CFX software in 9 patient-specific coronary artery models with 3 classes of stenosis severity: mild, moderate and severe. For this purpose, we compared some numerical results between two non-Newtonian models and Newtonian blood flow viscosity using 9 patient-specific coronary artery models including the full range of real (physiological) stenosis, reconstructed from 3DQCA (quantities coronary angiography). Incompressible and steady state form of Navier-Stokes equations were used as governing equations. Flow was considered laminar and artery walls were assumed to be rigid. Results showed that the magnitude of WSS usually increases by decreasing the cross-section area of arteries. Despite the difference in the WSS magnitude between different models in each artery, the trend of variation of WSS along the artery was the same in all three models. The local peak point of WSS along the artery occurs at the stenosis location, same for all models.