Abstract
To gain insight into cardio-arterial interactions, a coupled left ventricle-systemic artery (LV–SA) 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 Lax–Wendroff 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 LV–SA 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.
Highlights
Understanding the interaction between the heart and arteries can provide valuable information for clinical diagnosis and treatment in cardiovascular disease (Cecelja and Chowienczyk, 2012; Chirinos, 2013; Ky et al, 2013)
As changes in arterial properties can alter the heart function and vice versa (Noguchi et al, 2011), in this paper, we focus on the coupling of the heart and the arteries, by combining a models of a 3D left ventricle (LV) with a systemic arteries (SA) model that uses n Corresponding author
The results of the coupled model in systole for the baseline case are plotted in Fig. 3; the intracellular calcium transient taken from Hunter et al (1998) is shown for comparison
Summary
Understanding the interaction between the heart and arteries can provide valuable information for clinical diagnosis and treatment in cardiovascular disease (Cecelja and Chowienczyk, 2012; Chirinos, 2013; Ky et al, 2013). Current mathematical approaches tend to focus on either the arteries (Müller and Toro, 2014; Qureshi et al, 2014), or the heart alone (Perktold and Rappitsch, 1995; Gerbeau et al, 2005). In the former, ventricular function is either prescribed (Urquiza et al, 2006; Olufsen et al, 2000; Figueroa et al, 2006), or simplified using lumpedparameters (Kim et al, 2009; Arts et al, 2005). The SA model is based on the development by Olufsen (1999) and Olufsen et al (2000), which includes both large arteries and remote vascular beds
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