Neurovascular 3D: A Virtual Interface for Creating Aneurysms in a Population-Average Intracranial Arterial Network Model

The head and neck vasculature is a multi-arterial network that includes the Circle of Willis and numerous afferent and efferent vessels. After diagnosis, an intracranial aneurysm’s location within this vasculature has important implications for the management of the patient — to treat or not, treatment modality and approach, potential for complications, etc. Location can also have important implications for large population research studies designed to test hypotheses on risk factors for growth and rupture such as that by the International study of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (ISUIA). Currently, aneurysm location is communicated by vessel names among healthcare professionals (e.g., between a neuroradiologist and an interventionalist) and at best using codes among research personnel. But this may not do full justice to all aspects of aneurysm location. For instance, information such as proximity to the syphon of the internal carotid artery (ICA) or the orientation at a vessel junction (e.g., is the aneurysm along or opposite to the branching vessel) may be of importance, but rarely recorded in objective ways in the clinic or in the lab. The objective of this study was to develop a software interface (Neurovascular 3D) for recording the characteristics of patients’ aneurysms for use in large-scale scientific studies, and for efficient communication among clinical personnel about the aneurysm’s location and baseline characteristics. Capabilities in the interface would need to include the ability to record precisely within an idealized 3D model, the location, orientation, size and some aspects of aneurysm shape, as well as the ability to review and edit their created models in real time.