Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Atherogenic Potential Of Microgravity Hemodynamics In The Carotid Bifurcation: A Numerical Investigation, Philippe Sucosky, Varun Vinayak Kalaiarasan, Graham B. Quasebarth, Patricia Strack, Jason A. Shar

Faculty Open Access Publishing Fund Collection

Long-duration spaceflight poses multiple hazards to human health, including physiological changes associated with microgravity. The hemodynamic adaptations occurring upon entry into weightlessness have been associated with retrograde stagnant flow conditions and thromboembolic events in the venous vasculature but the impact of microgravity on cerebral arterial hemodynamics and function remains poorly understood. The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of microgravity on hemodynamics and wall shear stress (WSS) characteristics in 16 carotid bifurcation geometries reconstructed from ultrasonography images using computational fluid dynamics modeling. Microgravity resulted in a significant 21% increase in flow stasis index, a 22–23% decrease in …