DOI: 10.1615/TSFP7
SIMULATIONS OF MAGNETIC CAPTURING EFFICIENCY OF DRUG CARRIERS IN THE BRAIN VASCULAR SYSTEM
要約
The present paper reports on numerical simulations of blood flow and magnetic drug carrier distributions in a complex brain vascular system. The blood is represented as a non-Newtonian fluid by generalised power law. The Lagrangian tracking of the multi-layer spherical particles is performed to estimate particle deposition under influence of imposed magnetic field gradients along arterial walls. Two situations are considered: neutral (magnetic field off) and active control (magnetic field on) case. The multi-layer spherical particles that mimic a real medical drug are characterised by two characteristic diameters - the outer one and the inner one of the magnetic core. A numerical mesh of the brain vascular system consisting of multi-branching arteries is generated from raw MRI scan images of a patient. The blood is supplied through fourmain inlet arteries and the entire vascular system included more than 30 outlets, which are modelled by Murray's law. The no-slip boundary condition is applied for velocity components along the smooth and rigid arterial walls. Numerical simulations revealed detailed insights into blood flow patterns, wall-shear-stress and local particle deposition efficiency along arterial walls. It is demonstrated that magnetically targeted drug delivery significantly increased the particle capturing efficiency in the pre-defined regions. This feature can be potentially useful for localised, non-invasive treatment of brain tumours.