Patient-specific finite element simulation of left ventricle hemodynamics and mitral valve disease based on echocardiography
Résumé
Patient-specific models in medicine offer an emerging technology for simulation of disease progression and clinical interventions. Such simulations have the potential to offer clinical decision support, and to strengthen evidence-based medical decisions. In this paper, we present a framework for patient-specific simulation of mitral valve disease, building on a clinical pathway we have developed based on data acquisition from routine echocardiography [1]. The left ventricle (LV) endocardium is obtained by segmentation of echocardiographic image data, from which a finite element model of the LV hemodynamics is reconstructed [1]. We extend the LV model with a parametrized model of the mitral valve (MV) opening, which we use to simulate mitral valve leakage, and valve stenosis through reduced function in the valve opening and closing. The effect of the simulated valve diseases on the ventricular hemodynamics is analysed, and compared to real patient data for valve disease. The LV model is implemented in FEniCS-HPC [2], an open source finite element method framework targeting coupled multi-physics problems, and high performance computing platforms. The sensitivity of the simulation results with respect to the MV model is investigated, using uncertainty quantification techniques [3].