Multi-Scale Modeling of Heart Post-MI

Following acute myocardial infarction (MI), the damaged myocardium is gradually replaced by collagenous scar tissue. The structural and mechanical properties of the scar are critical determinants of heart function, as well as the risk of serious post-infarction complications such as infarct rupture, infarct expansion, and progression to heart failure.

Professor Xiaoyu Luo and her team in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Glasgow, are using ARCHIE-WeSt to model the heart post-MI. The work forms a part of a larger project at the EPSRC Center SofTMech (www.softmech.org). A computational approach that couples a 3D agent-based model of MI to a 3D MRI-derived heart of tissue mechanics will be developed. The aim is to create a multi-scale model that captures the dynamic interplay between the mechanical loading, the scar healing and remodeling, and the cardiac pump function. The agent-based model will be embedded into the open source IBAMR framework (https://github.com/IBAMR/IBAMR) which will enable a fully coupled fluid-structure interaction to be taken into account. Study of the fluid-structure interaction in the heart also requires the heart valves to be modelled. Of particular interests, is how the heart remodels during the healing process of the infarction.

For an animation of our left ventricle model superimposed on cine MR images of a patient, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qko55MsoX8k
For a list of the research areas in which ARCHIE-WeSt users are active please click here.