Numerical simulation of the left ventricle and atrium as reference for pathological hearts

To improve the diagnosis and therapy of heart diseases, we are developing a patient specific heart model KAHMO. Since indications as well as limitations of therapies for those diseases are still subject of discussion, this project is aimed at the optimization and the finding of indication criteria using a numerical simulation of the heart. The focus lies on the left ventricle, the atrium and the heart valves. In order to get quantitative information on the respective disease, it is first necessary to model a healthy human heart as a reference for a successful therapy planning. Standard clinical imaging (MRI, CT) is used to get a time-resolved ventricular geometry by segmentation of the fluid movement. A semiautomatic method generates topologically identical grids of the ventricle for each trigger step. A new grid generation method for the atrium is presented. The heart movement for a full cardiac cycle is performed by a third order approximation during simulation. Former publications showed, that the intraventricular flow structure is not only prescribed by the ventricle itself, but also by the movement and shape of the atrium. Enhancements in modeling the atrium and the valve models as well as an optimized grid generation are presented.