In-silico Study of Multiple Stenosis in the Retinal Arteriolar Network

Stenoses are a frequent anomaly of the retinal micro-vessels in case of cardiovascular pathologies. In those diseases, anomalies are diffuse and stenoses are usually present in series in a single vessel. The hemodynamic effect of these multiple stenoses is poorly documented at the microvascular level. In the present article, the study is numerical and carried out using a 1D model in a patient-specific retinal vasculature. We are looking at the effects of stenoses as a function of their length, degree of constriction and number in a vessel. Our results show that, an increase in the degree of constriction or the length of the stenosis leads to an increase in the loss of flow after the stenosis in a nonlinear fashion. Moreover, in case of multiple stenoses, distance between stenoses is not important. So only the total length of anomalies at a certain degree of constriction is important to evaluate the gravity.