Advanced Modeling for Cardiovascular Surgery

Synthetic program:

Section 1. Introductory concepts and motivations. 

1.1. General requirements of a simulation environment for procedure optimization, device testing and/or training.

1.2. Traditional in-vivo animal testing and related limitations.

1.2. The current regulatory scenario.

Section 2. Experimental laboratory platforms. 

2.1. Design specifications and methods for the development of mock circulatory loops.

2.2. Brief review of lumped-parameter modelling and its use in pulsatile hydrodynamic design.

2.3. The evolution from conventional test apparatuses to realistic phantoms.

2.4. Critical design of active and passive systems using ex-vivo anatomical samples.

2.5. Criteria for the practical setting-up and use of mock loops and phantoms in the laboratory: matching high-fidelity with practical goals.

Section 3. In-silico virtual phantoms. 

3.1. Introduction to numerical modelling approaches.

3.2. Brief review of large strain theory and constitutive modeling for cardiovascular tissues.

3.3. Geometrical reconstruction of cardiovascular structures from medical imaging.

3.4. Realistic modeling of boundary conditions.

3.5. Criteria for the implementation of numerical models of surgical devices and procedures: matching high-fidelity with practical goals.

Section 4. Integration of experimental and computational methods. 

4.1. Criteria for setting up integrated studies exploiting the complementarities of the two approaches.

4.2. Techniques for data integration: critical matching of quantitative information from different approaches.

4.3. The use of experiments for validation of  the models: analysis of real-world case studies.

4.4. The use of models for interpreting experimental data: analysis of real-world case studies.