Analysis software to help with medical research

An Ansys product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 19, 2006

Ansys Europe is taking part in a project with the ultimate goal of providing a new way to understand and manage cerebral aneurysms.

Ansys Europe is taking part in a project with the ultimate goal of providing a new way to understand and manage cerebral aneurysms.

Ansys Europe, a subsidiary of Ansys, will work in tandem with other @neurIST partners to collect data, conduct basic and clinical research, develop patient risk assessments and suggest methods for improved treatment protocols and medical devices.

The project, titled "Integrated Biomedical Informatics for the Management of Cerebral Aneurysms", is being carried out by a consortium of 29 public and private institutions of 12 European countries.

It also includes several organisations from the USA, New Zealand and Japan as external collaborators.

@neurIST's partners include leading universities, hospital clinics, research institutes and international companies, as well as several smaller companies.

The project began on 1st January 2006 and will continue for four years, with a total expected investment of more than Eur 17 million (approximately US $20 million).

Ansys' role in @neurIST is to analyse medical scan data and develop simulation models that help researchers and doctors identify the various types of cerebral aneurysms and subarachnoid haemorrhages, analyse current and experimental treatment methods and suggest optimal placement of treatment devices.

Current treatment methods include inserting coils or stents into the affected blood vessel to encourage blood clotting, which keeps the aneurysm from rupturing.

Information gleaned from the Ansys analyses is expected to assist @neurIST project members and biomedical device developers, who are working to improve on current treatment methods and protocols.

"Ansys has long served the biomedical industry with superior technology, giving customers an advantage in designing medical equipment such as heart pumps, heart valves and stents, as well as developing fundamental understanding of blood flows, fluid structure interaction and processes such as blood-clotting", said Chris Reid, Vice President and General Manager at Ansys.

"Our partnership with @neurIST will allow us to develop further expertise and contribute to innovative technologies and prototype designs that will be valuable in setting new standards for the biomedical industry".

Throughout its history, Ansys has had a number of opportunities to participate in collaborative projects, which bring together complementary skills and knowledge that can be leveraged to obtain the best possible results.

"Our experience with collaborative projects - in various fields, including medical - has shown that combining efforts has enabled us to achieve much more than any one of us could have done on our own".

"This particular collaborative approach will allow results to be utilised quickly, not just for the treatment of cerebral aneurysms but also in other fields where similar technology is required", said Ian Jones, Head of Technical Services at Ansys Europe.

The @neurIST project was undertaken to help reduce the morbidity and mortality of patients who experience aneurysms.

Of those who experience a rupture of their cerebral aneurysms, a third die and another third suffer impairment.

"The personal effect of aneurysm rupture is devastating".

"The aim of @neurIST is to transform the management of the condition by providing new insight, personalised risk assessment and methods for the design of improved medical devices and treatment protocols".

"Personalised risk assessment alone could reduce unnecessary treatment by 50% or more, with concomitant savings estimated in the order of thousands of millions of Euros per annum".

"Furthermore, the approach will be extendable to other disease processes and scalable to federate a large number of clinical centres and public databases", said Alejandro Frangi of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), which is co-ordinating the @neurIST project.