Fluid-structure interaction modeling of aortic valve stenosis at different heart rates.

PURPOSE This paper proposes a model to measure the cardiac output and stroke volume at different aortic stenosis severities using a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulation at rest and during exercise. METHODS The geometry of the aortic valve is generated using echocardiographic imaging. An Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian mesh was generated in order to perform the FSI simulations. Pressure loads on ventricular and aortic sides were applied as boundary conditions. RESULTS FSI modeling results for the increment rate of cardiac output and stroke volume to heart rate, were about 58.6% and -14%, respectively, at each different stenosis severity. The mean gradient of curves of cardiac output and stroke volume to stenosis severity were reduced by 57% and 48%, respectively, when stenosis severity varied from healthy to critical stenosis. CONCLUSIONS Results of this paper confirm the promising potential of computational modeling capabilities for clinical diagnosis and measurements to predict stenosed aortic valve parameters including cardiac output and stroke volume at different heart rates.