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Visual Exploration of Simulated and Measured Blood Flow

Morphology of cardiovascular tissue is influenced by the unsteady behavior of the blood flow and vice versa. Therefore, the pathogenesis of several cardiovascular diseases is directly affected by the blood-flow dynamics. Understanding flow behavior is of vital importance to understand the cardiovascular system and potentially harbors a considerable value for both diagnosis and risk assessment. The analysis of hemodynamic characteristics involves qualitative and quantitative inspection of the blood-flow field. Visualization plays an important role in the qualitative exploration, as well as the definition of relevant quantitative measures and its validation. There are two main approaches to obtain information about the blood flow: simulation by computational fluid dynamics, and in-vivo measurements. Although research on blood flow simulation has been performed for decades, many open problems remain concerning accuracy and patient-specific solutions. Possibilities for real measurement of blood flow have recently increased considerably by new developments in magnetic resonance imaging which enable the acquisition of 3D quantitative measurements of blood-flow velocity fields. This chapter presents the visualization challenges for both simulation and real measurements of unsteady blood-flow fields.