represent the fow inside these arteries.” “We are trying to better understand the interaction between the fow dynamics, the biological responses, and the artery wall biomechanics,” Cebral says. “If we understand these mechanisms, hopefully new drug therapies that attack those specifc mechanisms could be designed.”
This research also may help identify which patients to treat with medications or surgical interventions. Cebral is also working on another NIH-funded study with several other major universities and hospitals in the United States and Finland. He and his team are developing computational tools that combine different data about the aneurysm, including
information acquired from tissue harvested during surgery. Cebral says he hopes “our work may one day result in new diagnostic tools and therapies that will transform brain aneurysms into an innocuous disease that’s easy to manage.” ––Nanci Hellmich
STUDENT PARTNERS
PhD Student Works on Aneurysm Research Felicitas Detmer, a PhD student in bioengineering, says that when she meets new people, they often ask about her research topic. When she says it’s about brain aneurysms, they often tell her something like, “my friend had an aneurysm,” or once somebody said to her, “You know, my father died of an aneurysm.” These comments show how common aneurysms are. Aneurysms occur quite frequently––overall two to fve percent of the population have aneurysms––but usually they don’t cause any symptoms. If an aneurysm ruptures, or bursts and starts bleeding, it can cause a stroke, which often has fatal consequences, Detmer says. There are different treatment options to prevent unruptured aneurysms from bleeding, but the risk associated with these options and the associated complications are much higher than the natural aneurysm rupture risk. That is why, when an aneurysm is diagnosed, it can be quite challenging to decide whether to treat it. She is working with Juan Cebral, a professor in the Bioengineering Department, to develop “statistical models, which can identify those aneurysms that are likely to rupture in the future and thus require treatment,” Detmer says. She hopes that, in the future, this model can be applied in clinical practice to identify high-risk aneurysms, treat them, and prevent these patients from suffering a stroke.
PhD student Felicitas Detmer, who works with Professor Juan Raul Cebral on brain research, won second place in the university’s Three-Minute Thesis Competition for her explanation of their work. Photo by Evan Cantwell
––Martha Bushong
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