Growth and Remodeling

Overview

While computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can provide an instantaneous snapshot of hemodynamic conditions at a certain moment in time, to capture the long-term behavior of cardiovascular systems, we must capture their growth and remodeling (G&R) in response to experienced stresses. As such, our lab is working on several implementations of G&R formulas that leverage our 3D fluid-solid interaction (FSI) solvers to provide high-resolution predictions of cardiovascular outcomes. We use the constrained mixture model (CMM) as the basis of our G&R formulations. CMM tracks families of vascular constituents, such as collagen and elastin, and considers their relative contribution to the current vascular makeup. We have developed frameworks for both full CMM and its equilibrated counterpart. In both cases, we utilize fully 3D FSI allowing us to perform G&R on patient-specific models with complex geometries.

Lab members involved in the project: Martin Pfaller, Erica Schwarz, Jason Szafron