Sitting vs standing: A computational comparison of hemodynamics in carotid bifurcation

Sedentary lifestyle is very important in the etiology of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, atherosclerotic plaques tend to occur near arterial bifurcation, as carotid one. Different studies have been conduced to investigate the physiological changes that occurred due to prolonged postural positions, but no computational analysis has been carried out. Aim of this study was to numerical explore the hemodynamic changes due to prolonged sitting or standing (1 hour respectively) in a carotid bifurcation, using the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) approach. In-vivo non-invasive measurements of anatomy, pressure field and velocity pattern were recorded in a cohort of 10 volunteers and used as boundary conditions for the simulations. The results showed that the worse hemodynamic profile occurs after sitting position near to the bifurcation-low velocity and wall shear stress (WSS), high stasis and chaotic flow-suggesting that a high risk of plaque formation and of stenosis could happen.