Blood flow-induced physically based guidewire simulation for vascular intervention training

Purpose

A realistic guidewire behavior simulation is a vital component of a virtual vascular intervention system. Such systems are a safe, low-cost means of establishing a training environment to help inexperienced surgeons develop their intervention skills. Previous attempts to simulate the complex movement of a guidewire inside blood vessels have rarely considered the influence of blood flow. In this paper, we address this problem by integrating blood flow analysis and propose a novel guidewire simulation model.

Methods

The blood flow distribution inside the arterial vasculature was computed by separating the vascular model into discrete cylindrical vessels and modeling the flow in each vessel according to Poiseuille Law. The blood flow computation was then integrated into a robust Kirchhoff elastic model. With hardware acceleration, the guidewire simulation can be run in real time. To evaluate the simulation, an experimental environment with a 3D-printed vascular phantom and an electromagnetic tracking system was set up, with clinically used guidewire sensors applied to trace its motion as the standard for comparison.

Results

The virtual guidewire motion trace was assessed by comparing it to the comparison standard. The root-mean-square (RMS) value of the newly proposed guidewire model was 2.14 mm ± 1.24 mm, lower than the value of 4.81 mm ± 3.80 mm for the previous Kirchhoff model, while maintaining a computation speed of at least 30 fps.

Conclusion

The experimental results revealed that the blood flow-induced model exhibits better performance and physical credibility with a lower and more stable RMS error than the previous Kirchhoff model.