2D Semicircular canal simulation

2D Deformation of Semicircular canal due to fluid flow and otoconias presence

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is the most commonly diagnosed vertigo disease. BPPV is diagnosed by tracking the eye movements or nystagmus. We have developed app for simulation of particle motion inside the semicircular canals (SCC), wall deformation and fluid velocity as well as shear stress distribution.

Our two-dimensional biomechanical model of the SCC is described with full 3D fluid-structure interaction of particles, wall, cupula deformation and endolymph fluid flow. The 2D tool presents model of the SCC with parametric defined dimension.

Velocity distribution and shear stress from endolymph side are presented for parametric SCC. The model is used for correlation with the same experimental protocols with head moving and nystagmus eye tracking. Full fluid-structure interaction of otoconia particles, wall, cupula deformation and endolymph flow in two-dimensions give more details and understanding of the pathology of the specific patient in standard clinical diagnostic and therapy procedure for BPPV.

* Usage

The current mobile application represents the client-side application and is aimed for visualizing the results of the FE analysis of cupula displacement. The user is required to enter the number of otoconias and send it to the server-side application for getting the FEM calculation results. Server-side calculations lasts ~20 seconds. Results are downloaded automatically. The user is then required to set the starting rotation angle about vertical axis and wait for a few seconds for the application to prepare the downloaded model for visualization. Note that the last downloaded model is automatically saved so is available on the next run. Upon showing the results on the display, the user is required to rotate its head to the left or right holding the phone in front of his face and visually inspecting the results. By exiting the visualization mode, the user is able to display the chart containing: a) recorded angle of rotation, and 2) SCC opening displacement.

This app is partly supported by the grant EC FP7 610454 EMBalance project.