MRI-based aortic blood flow model in 3D ballistocardiography

Ballistocardiography (BCG) is a non-invasive technique which measures the acceleration of a body induced by cardiovascular activity, namely the force exerted by the beating heart. A one dimensional aortic flow model based on the transmission lines theory is developped and applied to the simulation of three dimensional BCG. A four-element Windkessel model is used to generate the pressure-wave. Using transverse MRI slices of a human subject, a reconstruction of the aorta allows the extraction of parameters used to relate the local change in mass of the 1D flow model to 3D acceleration BCG. Simulated BCG curves are then compared qualitatively with the ensemble average curves of the same subject recorded in sustained microgravity. Confirming previous studies, the main features of the y-axis are well simulated. The simulated z-axis, never attempted before, shows important similarities. The simulated x-axis is less faithful and suggests the presence of reflections.