• Andreas A Linninger, Cristian Tsakiris, David C Zhu, Michalis Xenos, Peter Roycewicz, Zachary Danziger, and Richard Penn.
• Laboratory for Product and Process Design, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA. linninge@uic.edu
• IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2005 Apr 1; 52 (4): 557-65.

AbstractDisturbances of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow in the brain can lead to hydrocephalus, a condition affecting thousands of people annually in the US. Considerable controversy exists about fluid and pressure dynamics, and about how the brain responds to changes in flow patterns and compression in hydrocephalus. This paper presents a new model based on the first principles of fluid mechanics. This model of fluid-structure interactions predicts flows and pressures throughout the brain's ventricular pathways consistent with both animal intracranial pressure (ICP) measurements and human CINE phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging data. The computations provide approximations of the tissue deformations of the brain parenchyma. The model also quantifies the pulsatile CSF motion including flow reversal in the aqueduct as well as the changes in ICPs due to brain tissue compression. It does not require the existence of large transmural pressure differences as the force for ventricular expansion. Finally, the new model gives an explanation of communicating hydrocephalus and the phenomenon of asymmetric hydrocephalus.

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