Case Study: Colorado Health Science Center achieves patient-specific transient FSI insights into pulmonary arterial hypertension with ANSYS

Colorado Health Science Center - Customer Case Study

Colorado Health Science Center cardiology researchers studying pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) faced the challenge of simulating transient hemodynamics and arterial motion in 3‑D patient-specific geometries derived from medical imaging. The work required coupled fluid‑structure interaction (FSI), hyperelastic vascular constitutive models, complex constraints and physiological fluid boundary conditions — needs beyond standard mean‑flow clinical measures. They turned to ANSYS (ANSYS FSI Solution, ANSYS ICEM CFD™ Hexa, ANSYS FEA and ANSYS CFX) to address these requirements.

ANSYS delivered a complete coupled FSI workflow — ICEM CFD Hexa for high‑quality meshes, ANSYS FEA for hyperelastic material and constraint modeling, and ANSYS CFX for robust CFD and flexible boundary definitions — enabling transient 3‑D patient‑specific simulations. Preliminary studies with ANSYS demonstrated feasibility, improved insight into transient physics and the effects of vascular stiffness, reduced compute time and greater modeling flexibility versus the team’s prior tools, and set the stage for validation studies and eventual non‑invasive clinical applications to better predict PAH progression and treatment outcomes.