Left Ventricular Fluid Dynamics
by
federico domenichini
Dept. Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Firenze
Coauthors: Gianni Pedrizzetti

The clinical application of fluid dynamics in the cardiovascular system is still at an early stage. A major difficulty comes from the need to develop a deeply interdisciplinary approach in order to support constructively the medical field where the information available and the sought answers can be quite different from those commonly found in technical fields.

In this lecture the fluid dynamics of the flows in the left ventricle is presented. The flow in ideal healthy conditions is numerically reproduced and analysed, taking particular care of the associated vorticity dynamics. The flow modifications that develop under specific pathological conditions are then described and analysed. The attention is then posed on the mathematical modelling of fluid-valve interaction, that is made complicated by the large motion of the thin leaflets and by the lack of information on the leaflet visco-elasticity parameters that are normally not measurable, in vivo. The modelling concepts and numerical techniques employed for such studies are described in details.

The main features of these vortex-dominated flows are discussed in relation with clinical practice, current diagnostic imaging techniques, and actual progresses that may become useful to support diagnostic and therapeutic advances.

Date received: March 14, 2008