In vivo MRI-based 3D FSI RV/LV models for human right ventricle and patch design for potential computer-aided surgery optimization

Right ventricular dysfunction is one of the more common causes of heart failure in patients with congenital heart defects. Use of computer-assisted procedures is becoming more popular in clinical decision making process and computer-aided surgeries. A 3D in vivo MRI-based RV/LV combination model with fluid–structure interaction (FSI), RV–LV interaction, and RV–patch interaction was introduced to perform mechanical analysis for human right ventricle with potential clinical applications. Patient-specific RV/LV morphologies were acquired by using planar tagged MRI. The 3D RV/LV FSI model was solved using a commercial finite element package ADINA. Our results indicated that flow and stress/strain distributions in the right ventricle are closely related to RV morphology, material properties and blood pressure conditions. Patches with material properties better matching RV tissue properties and smaller size lead to better RV function recoveries. Computational RV volumes showed very good agreement with MRI data (error <3%). More patient studies are needed to establish baseline database so that computational simulations can be used to replace empirical and often risky clinical experimentation to examine the efficiency and suitability of various reconstructive procedures in diseased hearts and optimal design can be found.