Simulation of Guide Wire Propagation for Minimally Invasive Vascular Interventions

In order to simulate intravascular interventions, a discretized representation of a guide wire is introduced which allows modeling of guide wires with different physical properties. An algorithm for simulating the propagation of a guide wire within a vascular system, on basis of the principle of minimization of energy, has been developed. Both longitudinal translation and rotation are incorporated as possibilities to manipulate the guide wire. The algorithm is based on quasi-static mechanics. Two types of energy are introduced, internal energy related to the bending energy of the guide wire and external energy resulting from the elastic deformation of the vessel wall. Compared to existing work, the novelty of our approach lies in the fact that an analytical solution is achieved. The algorithm is tested on phantom data. Results indicate plausible behavior of the simulation.