SSD - Vedula Seminar

Vijay Vedula, Ph.D. - Ventricular Hemodynamics in Disease and Development

Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, USA

Abstract

Despite continuous advancements in medical technologies and imaging, cardiovascular disease forms the leading cause of mortality and death. Computational modeling provides a low cost, non-invasive modality that complements animal testing and routine clinical care. Simulation-based diagnosis has demonstrated a growing impact in the clinic, ultimately leading to improved decision-making and patient outcomes. While this translation was successfully achieved in vascular flow applications, cardiac hemodynamics (representing blood flow in the heart chambers) has remained distant, partly due to the significant cost and complexity involved in modeling the underlying blood dynamics. These include high Reynolds number flows, moving boundaries and fluid-structure interaction effects, in addition to the complex multiphysics interactions and the valve dynamics. In this talk, I will present a robust and efficient framework to perform patient-specific modeling of ventricular hemodynamics with examples from single ventricle physiology (children born with a single `functional’ ventricle). I will then present the utility of the framework in embryonic cardiac flow modeling to understand shear regulated mechanotransduction during cardiac morphogenesis. Finally, I will discuss future directions, both from computational modeling and clinical translation perspective.

* funded by Theodore-von-Kármán-Fellowship