SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SEMINAR Monday, November 12, 2012 at 15:00 Wolfson Building of Mechanical Engineering, Room 206

Department of Surgery, UCSF

Department of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley

The urgent need for mathematical and computational modeling in biomechanics in general and specifically in cardiac mechanics has been well recognized and acknowledged in the past few years. The number of fatalities due to heart failure and the burden on the medical community defined heart failure to be of epidemic proportions and it was established that cardiac remodeling is the main driving force in heart failure. The lack of success in earlier treatments and the numerous new devices and treatments offered for heart failure motivated the medical community to cooperate and consult with other scientists and engineers.

As a part of the effort to better understand and treat heart failure, we used mathematical and computational tools and methods to model, analyze, and simulate cardiac mechanics and heart failure. We also analyzed magnetic resonance images (MRI) in order to validate and calibrate our models with realistic, patient-specific measurements.

In this talk we will see a short overview on the research that was performed on cardiac mechanics, heart failure, and cardiac remodeling from a computational mechanics point of view. Specifically, we will define the mathematical equations for remodeling using theory of plasticity and continuum mechanics; we will briefly review the nonlinear finite element formulations including 3D geometric models based on patient-specific MRI data, fiber orientations, and user-defined elements. We will view a few examples of simulations and analyses of patient-specific models; and also introduce the requirements for validation and calibration of our model using methods and techniques for data analysis from MRI. From a medical point of view, we will discuss the benefits and advantages in using analytical and computational methods in general, and see how these tools helped analyze a novel treatment designed for reverse-remodeling.

Recent advances in modeling and validation of cardiac heart failure and remodeling

Dr. Doron Klepach