Evaluation of Neck Tissue Heat Transfer in Case of Stenosis in the Carotid Artery

The build-up of plaque in the carotid artery, passing through the neck region, leads to the narrowing of the arterial lumen, known as stenosis. Arterial stenosis affects the supply of blood to the brain and may result into stroke if the plaque is dislodged. This study aims to evaluate stenosis influenced hemodynamics of the carotid artery and its effect on the bio-heat transfer to the external neck skin surface. Physiological flow condition, in a reconstructed 3-dimensional (3D) carotid artery model, was simulated using a transient finite volume numerical scheme. In addition to normal carotid arteries (non-stenosed models, NN = 8), models with an average degree of stenosis (ND = 8) of 43 ± 17% were numerically simulated, and a comparative study was performed. The carotid artery model was also encapsulated with a solid neck tissue phantom resembling the human neck. Therefore, a conjugate bio-heat transfer problem was numerically solved. Significant variation in the top-neck skin surface temperature contours was observed between stenosed and non-stenosed cases. This numerical study forms the basis for neck thermal feature-based carotid stenosis diagnosis in the future.