Cardiac fiber orientation in goat measured with Diffusion Tensor Imaging

We therefore hypothesize that fiber reorientation could be a local adaptive mechanism by which the strain distribution across the cardiac wall is homogenized. To test this hypothesis we measured fiber orientation in normal goat hearts and in goat hearts in which the mechanical load was locally distributed of an infarction. Diffusion Tensor Imaging was used to measure fiber orientation in voxels of 0.4 x 0.4 x 3.0 mm3. Preliminary results of measurements after 10 weeks infarction reveal a disturbance of this characteristic pattern. [In English

Modeling of cardiac growth and remodeling of myofiber orientation

The heart has the ability to respond to long-term changes in its environment through changes in mass (growth), shape (morphogenesis) and tissue properties (remodeling). For improved quantitative understanding of cardiac growth and remodeling (G&R) experimental studies need to be complemented by mathematical models. This paper reviews models for cardiac growth and remodeling of myofiber orientation, as induced by mechanical stimuli. A distinction is made between optimization models, that focus on the end stage of G&R, and adaptation models, that aim to more closely describe the mechanistic relation between stimulus and effect. While many models demonstrate qualitatively promising results, a lot of questions remain, e.g. with respect to the choice of the stimulus for G&R or the long-term stability of the outcome of the model. A continued effort combining information on mechanotransduction at the cellular level, experimental observations on G&R at organ level, and testing of hypotheses on stimulus–effect relations in mathematical models is needed to answer these questions on cardiac G&R. Ultimately, models of cardiac G&R seem indispensable for patient-specific modeling, both to reconstruct the actual state of the heart and to assess the long-term effect of potential interventions