A Quantitative Comparison Between Baseline Hemodynamics and End-Stage Aneurysm Formation in ApoE −/− Mice

The pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) formation still remains debated. Hemodynamics have been suggested to play a (modulating) role, but no follow-up studies have been performed due to (a.o.) a lack of human data before disease initiation. We therefore used an established mouse model of AAA [1] to study whether AAA develops at locations experiencing disturbed flow. We set up a framework to obtain mouse-specific Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of the mouse abdominal aorta, combining: (i) an in vivo assessed geometric model [2] and (ii) in vivo measured boundary conditions. A distance map was generated to link baseline and end-stage aortic morphologies after AAA development, and the relationship between baseline hemodynamics and end-stage dilatation was quantified.