Patient-Specific Simulation of Cardiac Blood Flow From High-Resolution Computed Tomography.
Cardiac hemodynamics can be computed from medical imaging data, and results could potentially aid in cardiac diagnosis and treatment optimization. However, simulations are often based on simplified geometries, ignoring features such as papillary muscles and trabeculae due to their complex shape, limitations in image acquisitions, and challenges in computational modeling. This severely hampers the use of computational fluid dynamics in clinical practice. The overall aim of this study was to develop a novel numerical framework that incorporated these geometrical features. The model included the left atrium, ventricle, ascending aorta, and heart valves. The framework used image registration to obtain patient-specific wall motion, automatic remeshing to handle topological changes due to the complex trabeculae motion, and a fast interpolation routine to obtain intermediate meshes during the simulations. Velocity fields and residence time were evaluated, and they indicated that papillary muscles and trabeculae strongly interacted with the blood, which could not be observed in a simplified model. The framework resulted in a model with outstanding geometrical detail, demonstrating the feasibility as well as the importance of a framework that is capable of simulating blood flow in physiologically realistic hearts.
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping SE-581 83, Sweden e-mail: jonas.lantz@liu.se.
Jonas
J
Lantz
Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping SE-581 83, Sweden.
Lilian
L
Henriksson
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping SE-581 83, Sweden.
Anders
A
Persson
Department of Management and Engineering, Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping SE-581 83, Sweden.
Matts
M
Karlsson
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), Linköping University, Linköping SE-581 83, Sweden.
Tino
T
Ebbers
D000368:Aged; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology*; D000072226:Computed Tomography Angiography; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D056973:Four-Dimensional Computed Tomography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D066230:Patient-Specific Modeling; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed