1D model of the human cerebral vasculature: Circle of Willis and leptomeningeal anastomoses

The model described here is a 1D representation of the main vessels of a healthy cerebral vascular network. It also includes the leptomeningeal anastomoses, small arterioles that connect the anterior and posterior districts of the brain to the middle one and provide alternative perfusion routes in case of occlusion of a major brain vessel.

The network is based on the model of the Circle of Willis published in [1]. Vessels branching from left and right middle cerebral arteries are obtained from [2]. Mechanical and geometrical properties of arteries branching from distal anterior cerebral arteries and from posterior cerebral arteries are derived from [3] and [4]. Vessels are assumed to be straight, narrow tubes that are linearly deformable in their radial direction.

The network provided here has been developed for simulations with the software openBF [5].

This repository contains three files:

- 1D_CoW.pdf: contains a graphical representation of the network, with numbered nodes and segmentes. Included is also a table with the radii, length, Young's moduli and windkessel parameters of the model.

- CoW_network.yml: input file for openBF simulations. It implementes the network as described in 1D_CoW.pdf.

- CoW_inlet.dat: input file for openBF simulations. It describes the inlet flowrate applied at the ascending aorta.

References

[1] Alastruey, J., K. H. Parker, J. Peiro, S. M. Byrd, S. J. Sherwin. Modelling the circle of Willis to assess the effects of anatomical variations and occlusions on cerebral flows. J Biomech. 40(8):1794-1805, 2007

[2] Melis, A., F. Moura, I. Larrabide, K. Janot, R. H. Clayton, A. P. Narata, et al. Improved biomechanical metrics of cerebral vasospasm identified via sensitivity analysis of a 1D cerebral circulation model. J Biomech. 90:24-32, 2019

[3] Blanco, P. J., S. M. Watanabe, M. A. Passos, P. A. Lemos, R. A. Feijoo. An anatomically detailed arterial network model for one-dimensional computational hemodynamics. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 62(2):736-753, 2015

[4] Phan, T. G., J. Hilton, R. Beare, V. Srikanth, M. Sinnott. Computer modeling of anterior circulation stroke: proof of concept in cerebrovascular occlusion. Front Neurol. 5:176, 2014

[5] Melis, A. openBF: Julia software for 1D blood flow modelling. Figshare. 2018; doi: https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.7166183