A coupling strategy for a first 3D-1D model of the cardiovascular system to study the effects of pulse wave propagation on cardiac function

TY - JOUR

T1 - A coupling strategy for a first 3D-1D model of the cardiovascular system to study the effects of pulse wave propagation on cardiac function

AU - Caforio, Federica

AU - Augustin, Christoph M.

AU - Alastruey, Jordi

AU - Gsell, Matthias A.F.

AU - Plank, Gernot

N1 - Funding Information: The study received support from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) grant I2760-B30 and from BioTechMed Graz grant ILEARNHEART. Simulations for this study were performed on the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC-4), which is maintained by the VSC Research Center in collaboration with the Information Technology Solutions of TU Wien. This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERA-NET co-fund action No. 680969 (ERA-CVD SICVALVES) funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Grant I 4652-B to CMA. J.A. acknowledges support from the by British Heart Foundation [PG/17/50/32903, PG/15/104/31913], the Centre for Medical Engineering at King’s College London [WT 203148/Z/16/Z], and Department of Health through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cardiovascular MedTech Co-Operative at GSTT. The authors acknowledge the financial support by the University of Graz, Austria. The authors acknowledge Dr. Laura Marx, PhD (Medical University of Graz, Austria) for the technical support with the calibration of the 3D EM cardiac model. Funding Information: The study received support from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) grant I2760-B30 and from BioTechMed Graz grant ILEARNHEART. Simulations for this study were performed on the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC-4), which is maintained by the VSC Research Center in collaboration with the Information Technology Solutions of TU Wien. This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERA-NET co-fund action No. 680969 (ERA-CVD SICVALVES) funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Grant I 4652-B to CMA. J.A. acknowledges support from the by British Heart Foundation [PG/17/50/32903, PG/15/104/31913], the Centre for Medical Engineering at King’s College London [WT 203148/Z/16/Z], and Department of Health through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cardiovascular MedTech Co-Operative at GSTT. The authors acknowledge the financial support by the University of Graz, Austria. The authors acknowledge Dr. Laura Marx, PhD (Medical University of Graz, Austria) for the technical support with the calibration of the 3D EM cardiac model. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - A key factor governing the mechanical performance of the heart is the bidirectional coupling with the vascular system, where alterations in vascular properties modulate the pulsatile load imposed on the heart. Current models of cardiac electromechanics (EM) use simplified 0D representations of the vascular system when coupling to anatomically accurate 3D EM models is considered. However, these ignore important effects related to pulse wave transmission. Accounting for these effects requires 1D models, but a 3D-1D coupling remains challenging. In this work, we propose a novel, stable strategy to couple a 3D cardiac EM model to a 1D model of blood flow in the largest systemic arteries. For the first time, a personalised coupled 3D-1D model of left ventricle and arterial system is built and used in numerical benchmarks to demonstrate robustness and accuracy of our scheme over a range of time steps. Validation of the coupled model is performed by investigating the coupled system’s physiological response to variations in the arterial system affecting pulse wave propagation, comprising aortic stiffening, aortic stenosis or bifurcations causing wave reflections. Our first 3D-1D coupled model is shown to be efficient and robust, with negligible additional computational costs compared to 3D-0D models. We further demonstrate that the calibrated 3D-1D model produces simulated data that match with clinical data under baseline conditions, and that known physiological responses to alterations in vascular resistance and stiffness are correctly replicated. Thus, using our coupled 3D-1D model will be beneficial in modelling studies investigating wave propagation phenomena.

AB - A key factor governing the mechanical performance of the heart is the bidirectional coupling with the vascular system, where alterations in vascular properties modulate the pulsatile load imposed on the heart. Current models of cardiac electromechanics (EM) use simplified 0D representations of the vascular system when coupling to anatomically accurate 3D EM models is considered. However, these ignore important effects related to pulse wave transmission. Accounting for these effects requires 1D models, but a 3D-1D coupling remains challenging. In this work, we propose a novel, stable strategy to couple a 3D cardiac EM model to a 1D model of blood flow in the largest systemic arteries. For the first time, a personalised coupled 3D-1D model of left ventricle and arterial system is built and used in numerical benchmarks to demonstrate robustness and accuracy of our scheme over a range of time steps. Validation of the coupled model is performed by investigating the coupled system’s physiological response to variations in the arterial system affecting pulse wave propagation, comprising aortic stiffening, aortic stenosis or bifurcations causing wave reflections. Our first 3D-1D coupled model is shown to be efficient and robust, with negligible additional computational costs compared to 3D-0D models. We further demonstrate that the calibrated 3D-1D model produces simulated data that match with clinical data under baseline conditions, and that known physiological responses to alterations in vascular resistance and stiffness are correctly replicated. Thus, using our coupled 3D-1D model will be beneficial in modelling studies investigating wave propagation phenomena.

KW - 3D-1D coupling

KW - Cardiac electromechanics

KW - Cardiovascular modelling

KW - Multiphysics modelling

KW - Pulse wave propagation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133579073&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s00466-022-02206-6

DO - 10.1007/s00466-022-02206-6

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85133579073

SN - 0178-7675

VL - 70

SP - 703

EP - 722

JO - COMPUTATIONAL MECHANICS

JF - COMPUTATIONAL MECHANICS

IS - 4

ER -