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Revisiting the simplified bernoulli equation

Jeffrey J Heys1, Nicole Holyoak, Anna M Calleja

  • 1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University - Bozeman, Box 173920, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.

The Open Biomedical Engineering Journal
|June 1, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) shows promise for assessing aortic valve stenosis severity. CFD analysis of echocardiography data offers improved accuracy over the simplified Bernoulli equation, especially in severe cases.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Research
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Fluid Dynamics

Background:

  • Aortic valve stenosis severity is assessed via invasive catheterization or non-invasive Doppler Echocardiography with the simplified Bernoulli equation.
  • Catheterization is more accurate but carries higher complication risks.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as an alternative method for analyzing echocardiography data.
  • To determine if CFD can yield results comparable to invasive catheterization measurements.

Main Methods:

  • An in vitro heart model with a rigid orifice was utilized.
  • Echocardiographic data was analyzed using both the simplified Bernoulli equation and CFD (Navier-Stokes equations).
  • Results were compared against experimental catheterization data.

Main Results:

  • For a 0.93cm² orifice, CFD and the simplified Bernoulli equation showed no significant difference from catheterization (p > 0.01).
  • For a smaller 0.52cm² orifice, CFD demonstrated better agreement with experimental data than the simplified Bernoulli equation (p < 0.01).

Conclusions:

  • In this in vitro model, CFD improves upon the simplified Bernoulli equation for assessing aortic valve stenosis.
  • The most significant improvements with CFD were observed at higher levels of valvular stenosis.
Abstract

Keywords:
Doppler EchocardiographyValvular stenosiscathetercomputational fluid dynamicsturbulence.

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