Growth and Remodeling of Intracranial Saccular Aneurysms

We present a mechanical model--a growing spherical shell--suitable for predicting the evolution of a Saccular Cerebral Artery Aneurysms (SCAA). It relies basically on the Kroner-Lee decomposition, used to describe the interplay between the current and the relaxed configuration of body elements. Rupture or stabilization of a SCAA are the end effect of a number of biological mechanisms, still poorly understood. We propose a model based on three competing remodeling mechanisms-- one passive and two active. Despite drastic simplifying assumptions, preliminary numerical experiments attest to the potential of our model to account for nontrivial evolutions ensuing from accidental perturbations of a homeostatic state.