Simulation - macOS version 11.2.3 - SV version 2021.02.06

[Jessica Blair]

Hello,
I was hoping to see if anyone had feedback on a certain type of simulation. This simulation would be for one portion of the cardiac cycle, and would basically include running an entire heart simulation on the aorta, superior vena cava, and coronary arteries. Is there a certain simulation I can run to include the variety of factors that affect these areas? I am also planning to include the atriums and ventricles in this simulation.
To add, is there a possibility of combining SimVascular models and ITK-SNAP models and meshing them together to apply a similar simulation to the one mentioned above?
Thank you for your time and stay well.

[David Parker]

Hi Jessica,

This is quite an ambitious project! Whole heart simulations are very challenging, need to have good geometric models and well-parameterized BC's that correctly represent physiological conditions.

The first step is getting a good geometric model. You can export a segmentation from ITK-Snap into SV using an STL file format. The model will need to be sufficiently smooth with flat inlets and outlets so SV can correctly determine walls and cap faces.

Fanwei Kong in the Shadden Lab at Berkeley is working on segmenting heart models. You may want to email her to discuss creating models and running simulations.

Cheers,
Dave

[Jessica Blair]

Hi David,

Thank you for the reply!
For exporting the segmentation from ITK-SNAP, they are different units, so would I need to apply a filter via ParaView first? I initially scaled the VTI files in SimVascular by the suggested 0.1. The model is relatively smooth, but not completely since it is of the chamber's blood during a 1/10 portion of the cardiac cycle and I used the bubble feature. I have attached a screenshot of the full model, from ITK-SNAP and SimVascular, viewed in ParaView with the necessary filters (translation) applied.

Thank you for noting Fanwei Kong in the Shadden Lab, I will reach out to her regarding a potential full heart model.

Take care and stay healthy,
Jessica

[David Parker]

Hi Jessica,

I suppose you could scale the model and ParaView and then export it. Or you could scale the image in SV to match IT-Snap. You would then need to make sure to use consistent simulation units.

Cheers,
Dave

[Jessica Blair]

Hi David,

Thank you for the reply. I will try scaling a different way.