Mechanical wall stresses on three-dimensionally reconstructed models of abdominal aortic aneurysm

We developed a methodology to estimate in-vivo wall stress distribution for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) on a patient-to-patient basis. Computed tomography scans were used to three-dimensionally reconstruct the in-situ geometry of intact AAA. The 3D models of 6 AAA and 1 non-aneurysmal control aorta were meshed with hyperelastic, quadrilateral shell elements with constant wall thickness, and the finite element method was used to compute wall stress distribution under systolic blood pressure.