Impact of Geometric Uncertainty on the Computation of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Wall Strain

Abstract

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life-threatening condition characterized by permanent enlargement of the aorta, often detected incidentally during imaging for unrelated conditions. Current management relies primarily on aneurysm diameter and growth rate, which may not reliably predict patient-specific rupture risk. Computation of AAA wall stress and strain has the potential to improve individualized risk assessment, but these analyses depend on image-derived geometry, which is subject to segmentation uncertainty and lacks a definitive ground truth for the wall boundary. While the effect of geometric uncertainty on wall stress has been studied, its influence on wall strain remains unclear. In this study, we assessed the impact of geometric uncertainty on AAA wall strain computed using deformable image registration of time-resolved 3D computed tomography angiography (4D-CTA). Controlled perturbations were applied to the wall geometry along the surface normal, parameterized by the standard deviation for random variation and the mean for systematic inward or outward bias, both scaled relative to wall thickness. Results show that uncertainties in AAA wall geometry reduce the accuracy of computed strain, with inward bias (toward the blood lumen and intraluminal thrombus) consistently causing greater deviations than outward bias (toward regions external to the aortic wall). Peak strain is more sensitive but less robust, whereas the 99th percentile strain remains more stable under perturbations. We concluded that, for sufficiently accurate strain estimation, geometric uncertainty should remain within one wall thickness (typically 1.5 mm).