Top honors for UC neurosurgery research

The team segmented aneurysms on 29 CT angiograms to produce 3D models that were input to software they wrote to perform the fractal analysis. This produces a fractal dimension (FD) for each aneurysm. Shapes that are more regular, or more closely resembling shapes such as cubes or spheres, and more completely fill their enclosing space have a higher FD, whereas shapes that are potentially more complex and do not closely resemble regular 3D shapes have a lower FD.

“We found that aneurysm domes with a lower FD are more likely to be ruptured aneurysms, while those with higher are more likely to be unruptured. The determination of whether a measure can predict rupture status is the first step in determining whether it can be used to predict rupture risk. We are working to create a large database of aneurysms to analyze with our methods to evaluate them as predictors of rupture risk,” Castiglione says.

He notes that rupture of intracranial aneurysms is the leading, non-traumatic cause of subarachnoid hemorrhage, which has a mortality rate of up to 50%. While not an uncommon finding, only some will rupture. Aneurysms can be treated to prevent rupture, however, these treatments also carry risk. It is crucial to determine what factors can be used to differentiate between the aneurysms that will eventually rupture and those that will not and do not need to be treated.