High-Order Cardiomyopathy Human Heart Model and Mesh Generation
Fariba Mohammadi1,2, Suzanne M Shontz3,4,2, Cristian A Linte5,6
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
Computing in Cardiology
|June 1, 2022
Summary
Generating high-order cardiac meshes directly from patient images ensures accurate cardiac biomechanics and electrophysiology simulations. This novel method captures complex heart geometry for improved computational modeling.
Area of Science:
- Computational mechanics
- Biomedical imaging
- Cardiovascular modeling
Background:
- Accurate cardiac simulations necessitate patient-specific geometric models.
- Cardiac geometry's complexity requires high-order meshes with curved elements for fidelity.
- Existing mesh generation often relies on unavailable computer-aided design files.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a direct high-order mesh generation technique for cardiac geometry.
- To create patient-specific, high-order cardiac meshes from medical images.
- To validate the quality of generated meshes for finite element simulations.
Main Methods:
- A direct high-order curvilinear tetrahedral mesh generation method was employed.
- The technique takes a high-order surface mesh from medical images as input.
- High-order volume meshes were generated directly from curved surface meshes.
Main Results:
- Several second-order cardiac meshes were successfully generated.
- Meshes included the left ventricle myocardia of healthy and diseased hearts (dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy).
- The generated high-order cardiac meshes were free of inverted elements and suitable for simulations.
Conclusions:
- The direct high-order mesh generation method effectively produces quality cardiac meshes.
- This approach overcomes limitations of traditional methods requiring computer-aided design files.
- The generated meshes are suitable for high-fidelity cardiac biomechanics and electrophysiology simulations.
