Computational modeling of local hemodynamics phenomena: Methods, tools and clinical applications

Local hemodynamics plays a key role in the onset of vessel wall pathophysiology, with peculiar blood flow structures (i.e. spatial velocity profiles, vortices, re-circulating zones, helical patterns and so on) characterizing the behavior of specific vascular districts. Thanks to the evolving technologies on computer sciences, mathematical modeling and hardware performances, the study of local hemodynamics can today afford also the use of a virtual environment to perform hypothesis testing, product development, protocol design and methods validation that just a couple of decades ago would have not been thinkable. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) appears to be more than a complementary partner to in vitro modeling and a possible substitute to animal models, furnishing a privileged environment for cheap fast and reproducible data generation.