Multimodal cardiovascular model for hemodynamic analysis: Simulation study on mitral valve disorders

Abstract

Valvular heart diseases are a prevalent cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide, affecting a wide spectrum of the population. In-silico modeling of the cardiovascular system has recently gained recognition as a useful tool in cardiovascular research and clinical applications. Here, we present an in-silico cardiac computational model to analyze the effect and severity of valvular disease on general hemodynamic parameters. We propose a multimodal and multiscale cardiovascular model to simulate and understand the progression of valvular disease associated with the mitral valve. The developed model integrates cardiac electrophysiology with hemodynamic modeling, thus giving a broader and holistic understanding of the effect of disease progression on various parameters like ejection fraction, cardiac output, blood pressure, etc., to assess the severity of mitral valve disorders, namingMitral StenosisandMitral Regurgitation. The model mimics an adult cardiovascular system, comprising a four-chambered heart with systemic, pulmonic circulation. The simulation of the model output comprises regulated pressure, volume, and flow for each heart chamber, valve dynamics, and Photoplethysmogram signal for normal physiological as well as pathological conditions due to mitral valve disorders. The generated physiological parameters are in agreement with published data. Additionally, we have related the simulated left atrium and ventricle dimensions, with the enlargement and hypertrophy in the cardiac chambers of patients with mitral valve disorders, using their Electrocardiogram available in Physionet PTBI dataset. The model also helps to create ‘what if’ scenarios and relevant analysis to study the effect in different hemodynamic parameters for stress or exercise like conditions.