TY - JOUR
T1 - Left ventricular trabeculations decrease the wall shear stress and increase the intra-ventricular pressure drop in CFD simulations
AU - Sacco, Federica
AU - Paun, Bruno
AU - Lehmkuhl, Oriol
AU - Iles, Tinen L.
AU - Iaizzo, Paul A.
AU - Houzeaux, Guillaume
AU - Vázquez, Mariano
AU - Butakoff, Constantine
AU - Aguado-Sierra, Jazmin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Sacco, Paun, Lehmkuhl, Iles, Iaizzo, Houzeaux, Vázquez, Butakoffand Aguado-Sierra.
PY - 2018/4/30
Y1 - 2018/4/30
N2 - The aim of the present study is to characterize the hemodynamics of left ventricular (LV) geometries to examine the impact of trabeculae and papillary muscles (PMs) on blood flow using high performance computing (HPC). Five pairs of detailed and smoothed LV endocardium models were reconstructed from high-resolution magnetic resonance images (MRI) of ex-vivo human hearts. The detailed model of one LV pair is characterized only by the PMs and few big trabeculae, to represent state of art level of endocardial detail. The other four detailed models obtained include instead endocardial structures measuring ≥ 1 mm2 in cross-sectional area. The geometrical characterizations were done using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with rigid walls and both constant and transient flow inputs on the detailed and smoothed models for comparison. These simulations do not represent a clinical or physiological scenario, but a characterization of the interaction of endocardial structures with blood flow. Steady flow simulations were employed to quantify the pressure drop between the inlet and the outlet of the LVs and the wall shear stress (WSS). Coherent structures were analyzed using the Q-criterion for both constant and transient flow inputs. Our results show that trabeculae and PMs increase the intra-ventricular pressure drop, reduce the WSS and disrupt the dominant single vortex, usually present in the smoothed-endocardium models, generating secondary small vortices. Given that obtaining high resolution anatomical detail is challenging in-vivo, we propose that the effect of trabeculations can be incorporated into smoothed ventricular geometries by adding a porous layer along the LV endocardial wall. Results show that a porous layer of a thickness of 1.2 · 10-2 m with a porosity of 20 kg/m2 on the smoothed-endocardium ventricle models approximates the pressure drops, vorticities and WSS observed in the detailed models.
AB - The aim of the present study is to characterize the hemodynamics of left ventricular (LV) geometries to examine the impact of trabeculae and papillary muscles (PMs) on blood flow using high performance computing (HPC). Five pairs of detailed and smoothed LV endocardium models were reconstructed from high-resolution magnetic resonance images (MRI) of ex-vivo human hearts. The detailed model of one LV pair is characterized only by the PMs and few big trabeculae, to represent state of art level of endocardial detail. The other four detailed models obtained include instead endocardial structures measuring ≥ 1 mm2 in cross-sectional area. The geometrical characterizations were done using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with rigid walls and both constant and transient flow inputs on the detailed and smoothed models for comparison. These simulations do not represent a clinical or physiological scenario, but a characterization of the interaction of endocardial structures with blood flow. Steady flow simulations were employed to quantify the pressure drop between the inlet and the outlet of the LVs and the wall shear stress (WSS). Coherent structures were analyzed using the Q-criterion for both constant and transient flow inputs. Our results show that trabeculae and PMs increase the intra-ventricular pressure drop, reduce the WSS and disrupt the dominant single vortex, usually present in the smoothed-endocardium models, generating secondary small vortices. Given that obtaining high resolution anatomical detail is challenging in-vivo, we propose that the effect of trabeculations can be incorporated into smoothed ventricular geometries by adding a porous layer along the LV endocardial wall. Results show that a porous layer of a thickness of 1.2 · 10-2 m with a porosity of 20 kg/m2 on the smoothed-endocardium ventricle models approximates the pressure drops, vorticities and WSS observed in the detailed models.
KW - Left ventricular hemodynamics
KW - Left ventricular modeling
KW - Papillary muscles
KW - Porosity
KW - Trabeculae
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U2 - 10.3389/fphys.2018.00458
DO - 10.3389/fphys.2018.00458
M3 - Article
C2 - 29760665
AN - SCOPUS:85050281575
SN - 1664-042X
VL - 9
JO - Frontiers in Physiology
JF - Frontiers in Physiology
M1 - 458
ER -