Electromechanical-Growth Model for Simulating Myocardial Concentric Hypertrophy in Systemic Hypertension

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Soheila Shabani

Akbar Allahverdizadeh

Pezhman Namashiri

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

10.22067/jacsm.2024.87993.1255

Abstract

Computational modeling of cardiovascular system is one of the important research areas that can be used to analyze the response of the heart in healthy and disease states. In this study, an integrated electromechanical-growth biventricular model has been developed to simulate concentric hypertrophy caused by systemic hypertension. By using Windkessel three-element blood circulation model and expanding the heart pressure model from previous studies, the pressure of the left and right ventricles was modeled. The implementation of concentric growth kinematics equations was developed from previous studies to be integrated with the electromechanical model. The model was fully implemented in COMSOL commercial finite element software and the validation was performed with previous studies. Results showed that the tissue grows to deal with critical stresses and reduces maximum stress magnitude. Furthermore, it was observed that the thickness of the left ventricular walls increases significantly in the disease and the ejection fraction decreases along with the end-diastolic volume of the heart. The presented model can be improved in future by including Purkinje fibers or using an extracted cardiac geometry from medical images.

Keywords

Cardiac Electromechanics

Growth

Hypertrophy

Systemic Hypertension

Finite Element Analysis

Subjects

• Bio mechanics

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