The Effect of Over-Loaded Right Ventricle During Passive Filling in Rat Heart: A Biventricular Finite Element Model

Abstract

The physiological basis of the right ventricle diastolic function is not well studied. In most heart failure, heart transplantation remains the first choice with survival ranges between 40% and 50%. It is known that heart transplantation lacks donors and therefore, there is a need to search for new surgical techniques for heart failure prevention. This study utilized the finite elment method to study the structural behavior of heart wall under severe pressures. In this study the effect RV filling during over-pressurised RV using bi-ventricular model has been studied using finite element modeling (FEM). Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in low-income and middle-income countries. The right ventricle (RV) dysfunction is understood to have an impact on the performance of the left ventricle (LV) but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Finite strain analyses of bi-ventricular model provide important information on the heart function. The passive myocardium was modelled as a nearly incompressible, hyperelastic, transversely isotropic material. Biventricular geometries of healthy and infarcted rat hearts reconstructed from magnetic resonance images were imported in Abaqus©. In simulating the passive filling of the healthy condition of the rat heart, the inner walls of the LV and RV the pressures of 4.8 kPa and 0.0098 kPa were applied respectively. The average circumferential strain was found to be 0.138 and 0.100 on the endocardium of the over-pressured and healthy model respectively. The high stresses and strains on the over-loaded model were observed.