2015 Research Grant

We are pleased and proud to announce the the 3rd annual

“Maine’s KAT-Walk & Karo-5K Chair of Research”

was one of thirteen Scholarships totaling $265,000 awarded at The 9th Annual Brain Aneurysm Foundation Research Grant Awards Symposium held on September 10th in Houston, Texas. This grant was funded from the 2014 KAT-Walk & Karo-5K for Brain Aneurysm Awareness, Portland, Maine.

This $25,000 Chair of Research was awarded to Kimberly P. Kicielinski, MD, University of Alabama at Birmingham for her research project entitled: “Correlation of Cerebral Aneurysm Wall Structure on OCT Images with Flow Models of Wall Shear Stress: A Pilot Study”.

Project Description: The current treatment plans guiding which brain aneurysms are likely to rupture and need to be treated are basic and mainly focus on the size of the aneurysm. We know that aneurysms rupture at the weak points in their walls. Walls of ruptured aneurysms have been studied under a microscope, but the artery wall of aneurysms before they rupture has never been explored. Our study uses ultrasound-like technology (Optical Coherence Tomography) built into a small catheter that can travel in the blood vessel and scan the aneurysm wall from the inside. This provides information on the thickness and layers of the wall. We plan to compare this with models of wall stress that come from engineering equations and aneurysm imaging. This will allow us to study the relationship between the thickness of the wall, the forces acting on the wall, and how they both affect weak points of the wall likely to rupture. This will provide a better understanding of the mechanics of aneurysm rupture, and hopefully lead to an ability to more accurately classify which aneurysms are high risk and require treatment, and which do not need surgery.

Thank you to everyone who donates and supports our efforts to increase Brain Aneurysm Awareness and Research. We look forward to continuing to provide awareness, education, funding of research, and general support that will now be centered on the Brain Aneurysm community in Maine and northern New England.