Prediction of blood pressure and blood flow in stenosed renal arteries using CFD

In the present work an attempt is made to develop a diagnostive tool for renal artery stenosis (RAS) which is inexpensive and in-vitro. To analyse the effects of increase in the degree of severity of stenosis on hypertension and blood flow, haemodynamic parameters are studied by performing numerical simulations. A total of 16 stenosed models with varying degree of stenosis severity from 0-97.11% are assessed numerically. Blood is modelled as a shear-thinning, non-Newtonian fluid using the Carreau model. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is carried out to compute the values of flow parameters like maximum velocity and maximum pressure attained by blood due to stenosis under pulsatile flow. These values are further used to compute the increase in blood pressure and decrease in available blood flow to kidney. The computed available blood flow and secondary hypertension for varying extent of stenosis are mapped by curve fitting technique using MATLAB and a mathematical model is developed. Based on these mathematical models, a quantification tool is developed for tentative prediction of probable availability of blood flow to the kidney and severity of stenosis if secondary hypertension is known.