Total cavopulmonary connection is a surgical procedureadopted to treat complex congenital malformations of theright heart. It consists basically in a connection of both venaecavae directly to the right pulmonary artery. In this paper athree-dimensional model of this connection is presented, which isbased on in vivo measurements performed by means of magneticresonance. The model was developed by means of computationalfluid dynamics techniques, namely the finite element method. Theaim of this study was to verify the capability of such a modelto predict the distribution of the blood flow into the pulmonaryarteries, by comparison with in vivo velocity measurements.Different simulations were performed on a single clinical case totest the sensitivity of the model to different boundary conditions,in terms of inlet velocity profiles as well as outlet pressure levels.Results showed that the flow distribution between the lungs isslightly affected by the shape of inlet velocity profiles, whereas itis influenced by different pressure levels to a greater extent.
Computational Fluid Dynamic and Magnetic Resonance Analyses of Flow Distribution Between the Lungs After Total Cavopulmonary Connection
PIETRABISSA, RICCARDO;
1999-01-01
Abstract
Total cavopulmonary connection is a surgical procedureadopted to treat complex congenital malformations of theright heart. It consists basically in a connection of both venaecavae directly to the right pulmonary artery. In this paper athree-dimensional model of this connection is presented, which isbased on in vivo measurements performed by means of magneticresonance. The model was developed by means of computationalfluid dynamics techniques, namely the finite element method. Theaim of this study was to verify the capability of such a modelto predict the distribution of the blood flow into the pulmonaryarteries, by comparison with in vivo velocity measurements.Different simulations were performed on a single clinical case totest the sensitivity of the model to different boundary conditions,in terms of inlet velocity profiles as well as outlet pressure levels.Results showed that the flow distribution between the lungs isslightly affected by the shape of inlet velocity profiles, whereas itis influenced by different pressure levels to a greater extent.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
