Usyk T, Kerckhoffs R. Three dimensional electromechanical model of porcine heart with penetrating wound injury. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2005;111:568-73

PMID: 15718799

Abstract

The aim of this study is development a prototype computational model of the pig heart that can be used to predict physiological responses to a penetrating wound injury. The pig has been chosen for this model studies because it shares many anatomical similarities with humans. Three-dimensional cubic Hermite finite element meshes based on detailed measurements of porcine anatomy combined into an integrated anatomic model. The pig ventricular model includes detailed left and right ventricular geometry and myofiber and laminar sheet orientations throughout the mesh. The cardiac mesh was refined and monodomain equations for action potential propagation solved using well-established collocation-Galerkin finite element methods. The membrane kinetic equations for the action potential model was based on detailed cellular models of transmembrane ionic fluxes and intracellular calcium fluxes in canine ventricular myocytes and human atrial myocytes. We modified the anisotropic myocardial conductivity tensor on the endocardial surface of the ventricles by making use of a surface model fitted to measured of Purkinje fiber network anatomy. The mechanical model compute regional three-dimensional stress and strain distributions using anisotropic constitutive laws referred to local material coordinate axes defined by local myofiber and laminar sheet orientations. Passive myocardial mechanics modeled using exponential orthotropic strain energy functions. Active systolic myocardial stresses computed from a multi-scale model that uses crossbridge theory to predict calcium-activated sarcomere length- and velocity-dependent tension filament tension. Since the electrical and mechanical models use a common finite element mesh as the parent parametric framework and both models are solved within our custom finite element package, it is straightforward to couple these models, as we have recently done for a model of coupled ventricular electromechanics. We apply the coupled electromechanical model to predict alterations in regional diastolic and systolic wall mechanics associated with rhythm disturbances and possible arrhythmias with decreased blood volume, tamponade, myocardial injury, and regional ischemia caused by a penetrating wound.