Patient specific fluid–structure ventricular modelling for integrated cardiac care

Cardiac diseases represent one of the primary causes of mortality and result in a substantial decrease in quality of life. Optimal surgical planning and long-term treatment are crucial for a successful and cost-effective patient care. Recently developed state-of-the-art imaging techniques supply a wealth of detailed data to support diagnosis. This provides the foundations for a novel approach to clinical planning based on personalisation, which can lead to more tailored treatment plans when compared to strategies based on standard population metrics. The goal of this study is to develop and apply a methodology for creating personalised ventricular models of blood and tissue mechanics to assess patient-specific metrics. Fluid–structure interaction simulations are performed to analyse the diastolic function in hypoplastic left heart patients, who underwent the first stage of a three-step surgical palliation and whose condition must be accurately evaluated to plan further intervention. The kinetic energy changes generated by the blood propagation in early diastole are found to reflect the intraventricular pressure gradient, giving indications on the filling efficiency. This suggests good agreement between the 3D model and the Euler equation, which provides a simplified relationship between pressure and kinetic energy and could, therefore, be applied in the clinical context.