Illustration-Inspired Visualization of Blood Flow Dynamics

Image-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a central tool in the evaluation of hemodynamic factors in cardiovascular disease development and treatment, to the point where major vendors are now seeking to deploy CFD solvers on their medical imaging platforms. Detailed hemodynamic data available from CFD generate large data sets due to complex flow, which are difficult to render clearly - and thus communicate to clinical stakeholders - using conventional engineering flow visualization techniques. This is especially challenging considering the four-dimensional nature of the flow patterns (i.e., Rapidly varying in space and time), as well as the clinical need for generating static reports rather than cumbersome digital animations. Taking a cue from the rich history of biomedical illustration, our goal is to use this opportunity for developing new data-driven paradigms for visualizing blood flow based on the principles of illustration, sequential art, and the visual vocabularies and conventions of radiology and vascular surgery.