Patient-specific modeling and visualization of blood flow through the heart

Many cardiovascular diseases, such as ischemia and arrhythmia, will cause abnormal motion of the myocardium, leading to a change of the blood flow pattern in the heart and an increased risk of the formation of thrombus. In this paper, we propose a new method to use high-resolution 4D CT data to model the complex moving boundaries of the heart walls, accurately simulate blood flow using the Navier-Stokes equations, and visualize the flow in order to view interactions between the heart walls and the fluid. We then visually and quantitatively compare the flow in a normal heart to that of a heart suffering from hypokinesis, and see how the diseased heart is at greater risk of blood clotting. In a clinical setting, these types of visualizations could prove to be invaluable, allowing doctors to more easily diagnose and prescribe treatments for certain conditions.