Romana Perinajová

I received a BSc degree in Nano and Microtechnologies in Chemical Engineering from the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague and MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from the Delft University of Technology. Currently, I am pursuing a PhD degree in the field of Biomedical Engineering in the Transport Phenomena group. I am working on the development of a new technique for better understanding and earlier detection of an aortic aneurysm.

Research

An aortic aneurysm is life-threatening as it can lead to dissection and rupture. Aneurysms often remain undetected until a fatal event occurs. Current clinical guidelines recommend serial lumen assessment (monitoring of diameter) to evaluate the risk of rupture. However, this approach suffers from low sensitivity and specificity to detect an asymptomatic aortic aneurysm. There is an urgent clinical need for new biomarkers that go beyond lumen assessment and contribute to earlier aneurysm detection, preferably before growth, to prevent dissection and fatal rupture. Aberrant blood flow patterns provoke changes in local mechanical wall properties (expressed in regional wall stiffening) due to abnormal stresses on the aortic vessel wall. A new, non-invasive imaging approach (combination of MRI and CFD) that provides structural and mechanical information of the aortic vessel wall, as well as hemodynamic information from blood flow and regional transmural blood pressure, may detect aneurysm formation earlier. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a powerful imaging tool. However, some information cannot be acquired from MRI only (detailed hemodynamics parameters, transmural pressure, etc.). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can provide these missing information and by that give more insight into this life-threatening disease. The aim of my work is to develop a multi-physics model of the whole human aorta and together with LUMC and MUMC define sex-specific physiological normal values and cut-off values for identifying pathological abnormalities based on new and existing data from 10-year follow-up (approx. 200 cases). The work can be extended into oxygen transport in the diseased aorta, that can have an effect on the structural properties of the arterial walls. This research is funded by Hartstichting (Dutch Heart Association).