Computational Modeling of Flow-Mediated Fibrin Degradation in Arterial Blood Clots During Thrombolysis.

Thrombolysis is the process by which a blood clot is broken down by a drug (tissue Plasminogen Activator or tPA) through degradation of fibrin, the structural component of the clot. Comprehensive understanding of thrombolysis of real human arterial clots is important for improving treatment efficacy. In real arterial clots with heterogeneous microstructure, the lysis process is often not well-understood and is difficult to investigate experimentally or in vivo. In-silico computational models coupling fluid flow and biochemical processes can be a viable alternative to inform underlying thrombolytic processes and resulting treatment efficacy. Here, we use a compartmental model to simulate tPA infusion into the body and biochemical reactions in the fibrinolysis cascade. We couple this with a stabilized finite element formulation for fluid flow within and around an arterial blood clot, and species transport and local species reaction with surface fibrin in the clot geometry. We will present simulations using different clot microstructural properties, to illustrate how microstructural variations can lead to differences in flow mediated transport of tPA drug and subsequent lysis of the clot.