3,880 research outputs found
A coupled mitral valve -- left ventricle model with fluid-structure interaction
Understanding the interaction between the valves and walls of the heart is
important in assessing and subsequently treating heart dysfunction. With
advancements in cardiac imaging, nonlinear mechanics and computational
techniques, it is now possible to explore the mechanics of valve-heart
interactions using anatomically and physiologically realistic models. This
study presents an integrated model of the mitral valve (MV) coupled to the left
ventricle (LV), with the geometry derived from in vivo clinical magnetic
resonance images. Numerical simulations using this coupled MV-LV model are
developed using an immersed boundary/finite element method. The model
incorporates detailed valvular features, left ventricular contraction,
nonlinear soft tissue mechanics, and fluid-mediated interactions between the MV
and LV wall. We use the model to simulate the cardiac function from diastole to
systole, and investigate how myocardial active relaxation function affects the
LV pump function. The results of the new model agree with in vivo measurements,
and demonstrate that the diastolic filling pressure increases significantly
with impaired myocardial active relaxation to maintain the normal cardiac
output. The coupled model has the potential to advance fundamental knowledge of
mechanisms underlying MV-LV interaction, and help in risk stratification and
optimization of therapies for heart diseases.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure
A coupled mitral valve - left ventricle model with fluid-structure interaction
Understanding the interaction between the valves and walls of the heart is important in assessing and subsequently treating heart dysfunction. This study presents an integrated model of the mitral valve (MV) coupled to the left ventricle (LV), with the geometry derived from in vivo clinical magnetic resonance images. Numerical simulations using this coupled MVâLV model are developed using an immersed boundary/finite element method. The model incorporates detailed valvular features, left ventricular contraction, nonlinear soft tissue mechanics, and fluid-mediated interactions between the MV and LV wall. We use the model to simulate cardiac function from diastole to systole. Numerically predicted LV pump function agrees well with in vivo data of the imaged healthy volunteer, including the peak aortic flow rate, the systolic ejection duration, and the LV ejection fraction. In vivo MV dynamics are qualitatively captured. We further demonstrate that the diastolic filling pressure increases significantly with impaired myocardial active relaxation to maintain a normal cardiac output. This is consistent with clinical observations. The coupled model has the potential to advance our fundamental knowledge of mechanisms underlying MVâLV interaction, and help in risk stratification and optimisation of therapies for heart diseases
A parallel interaction potential approach coupled with the immersed boundary method for fully resolved simulations of deformable interfaces and membranes
In this paper we show and discuss the use of a versatile interaction
potential approach coupled with an immersed boundary method to simulate a
variety of flows involving deformable bodies. In particular, we focus on two
kinds of problems, namely (i) deformation of liquid-liquid interfaces and (ii)
flow in the left ventricle of the heart with either a mechanical or a natural
valve. Both examples have in common the two-way interaction of the flow with a
deformable interface or a membrane. The interaction potential approach (de
Tullio & Pascazio, Jou. Comp. Phys., 2016; Tanaka, Wada and Nakamura,
Computational Biomechanics, 2016) with minor modifications can be used to
capture the deformation dynamics in both classes of problems. We show that the
approach can be used to replicate the deformation dynamics of liquid-liquid
interfaces through the use of ad-hoc elastic constants. The results from our
simulations agree very well with previous studies on the deformation of drops
in standard flow configurations such as deforming drop in a shear flow or a
cross flow. We show that the same potential approach can also be used to study
the flow in the left ventricle of the heart. The flow imposed into the
ventricle interacts dynamically with the mitral valve (mechanical or natural)
and the ventricle which are simulated using the same model. Results from these
simulations are compared with ad- hoc in-house experimental measurements.
Finally, a parallelisation scheme is presented, as parallelisation is
unavoidable when studying large scale problems involving several thousands of
simultaneously deforming bodies on hundreds of distributed memory computing
processors
Modelling mitral valvular dynamicsâcurrent trend and future directions
Dysfunction of mitral valve causes morbidity and premature mortality and remains a leading medical problem worldwide. Computational modelling aims to understand the biomechanics of human mitral valve and could lead to the development of new treatment, prevention and diagnosis of mitral valve diseases. Compared with the aortic valve, the mitral valve has been much less studied owing to its highly complex structure and strong interaction with the blood flow and the ventricles. However, the interest in mitral valve modelling is growing, and the sophistication level is increasing with the advanced development of computational technology and imaging tools. This review summarises the state-of-the-art modelling of the mitral valve, including static and dynamics models, models with fluid-structure interaction, and models with the left ventricle interaction. Challenges and future directions are also discussed
A finite strain nonlinear human mitral valve model with fluid structure interaction
A simulated human mitral valve under a physiological pressure loading is developed using a hybrid finite element immersed boundary method, which incorporates experimentally based constitutive laws in a three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction framework. A transversely isotropic material constitutive model is used for characterizing the mechanical behaviour of the mitral valve tissue based on recent mechanical tests of healthy human mitral leaflets. Our results show good agreement, in terms of the flow rate and the closing and opening configurations, with the measurements from the magnetic resonance images. The stresses in the anterior leaflet are found to be higher than those in the posterior leaflet, and concentrated around the annulus trigons and free edges of the valve leaflets. Those areas are located where the leaflet has the highest curvature. Effects of the chordae tendineae in the material model are studied and the results show that these chordae play an important role in providing a secondary orifice for the flow when valve opens. Although there are some discrepancies to be overcome in future works, our simulations show that the developed computational model is promising in mimicking the in vivo mitral valve dynamics and providing important information that are not obtainable by in vivo measurements. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Mixed Valvular Disease Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: Quantification and Systematic Differentiation Using Clinical Measurements and Image-Based PatientâSpecific In Silico Modeling
Background: Mixed valvular disease (MVD), mitral regurgitation (MR) from preâexisting disease in conjunction with paravalvular leak (PVL) following transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), is one of the most important stimuli for left ventricle (LV) dysfunction, associated with cardiac mortality. Despite the prevalence of MVD, the quantitative understanding of the interplay between preâexisting MVD, PVL, LV, and postâTAVR recovery is meager.
Methods and Results: We quantified the effects of MVD on valvularâventricular hemodynamics using an imageâbased patientâspecific computational framework in 72 MVD patients. Doppler pressure was reduced by TAVR (mean, 77%; N=72; P<0.05), but it was not always accompanied by improvements in LV workload. TAVR had no effect on LV workload in 22 patients, and LV workload postâTAVR significantly rose in 32 other patients. TAVR reduced LV workload in only 18 patients (25%). PVL significantly alters LV flow and increases shear stress on transcatheter aortic valve leaflets. It interacts with mitral inflow and elevates shear stresses on mitral valve and is one of the main contributors in worsening of MR postâTAVR. MR worsened in 32 patients postâTAVR and did not improve in 18 other patients.
Conclusions: PVL limits the benefit of TAVR by increasing LV load and worsening of MR and heart failure. PostâTAVR, most MVD patients (75% of N=72; P<0.05) showed no improvements or even worsening of LV workload, whereas the majority of patients with PVL, but without that preâexisting MR condition (60% of N=48; P<0.05), showed improvements in LV workload. MR and its exacerbation by PVL may hinder the success of TAVR
Study of cardiovascular function using a coupled left ventricle and systemic circulation model
To gain insight into cardio-arterial interactions, a coupled left ventricle-systemic artery (LVâSA) model is developed that incorporates a three-dimensional finite-strain left ventricle (LV), and a physiologically-based one-dimensional model for the systemic arteries (SA). The coupling of the LV model and the SA model is achieved by matching the pressure and the flow rate at the aortic root, i.e. the SA model feeds back the pressure as a boundary condition to the LV model, and the aortic flow rate from the LV model is used as the input for the SA model. The governing equations of the coupled system are solved using a combined immersed-boundary finite-element (IB/FE) method and a LaxâWendroff scheme. A baseline case using physiological measurements of healthy subjects, and four exemplar cases based on different physiological and pathological scenarios are studied using the LVâSA model. The results of the baseline case agree well with published experimental data. The four exemplar cases predict varied pathological responses of the cardiovascular system, which are also supported by clinical observations. The new model can be used to gain insight into cardio-arterial interactions across a range of clinical applications
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