A comparison of modelling techniques for computing wall stress in abdominal aortic aneurysms

Aneurysms, in particular abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), form a significant portion of cardiovascular related deaths. There is much debate as to the most suitable tool for rupture prediction and interventional surgery of AAAs, and currently maximum diameter is used clinically as the determining factor for surgical intervention. Stress analysis techniques, such as finite element analysis (FEA) to compute the wall stress in patient-specific AAAs, have been regarded by some authors to be more clinically important than the use of a "one-size-fits-all" maximum diameter criterion, since some small AAAs have been shown to have higher wall stress than larger AAAs and have been known to rupture.