A simple lumped parameter model of the cardiovascular system
Date
2011
Authors
Phillips, Canek Moises Luna, author
Dasi, Lakshmi Prasad, advisor
James, Susan P., committee member
Kawcak, Christopher E., committee member
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Abstract
Congestive heart failure is caused when untreated heart diseases affect malfunction in the heart to a point where the heart can no longer pump enough blood to the body. The additional energy cost taxed onto the heart by heart diseases is the root cause of congestive heart failure. Currently, a disease severity guideline is used in the medical field to differentiate disease cases and their relative risk of causing congestive heart failure. The current disease severity guideline does not take into consideration workload when assessing the severity of a disease case. A zero-dimensional computational model of the left ventricle was developed to simulate physiological and pathophysiological characteristics to quantify workload of hypothetical normal and diseased patient cases. The development of the computational model has revealed that workload calculation possesses utility in differentiating the severity of risk that left ventricular diseases have on affecting congestive heart failure. Results of heart disease simulations for aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation, mitral regurgitation, and hypertension show the energy cost the diseases impose on the left ventricle compared to a normal patient model. Additional results of simulations with combined mild cases of heart diseases show an amplified impact on energy cost - more than the energy cost of individual mild cases added together separately. The calculation of workload in computational simulations is an important step towards using workload as a universal indicator of risk of development of congestive heart failure and updating treatment guidelines so that prevention of congestive heart failure is more successful.
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Subject
congestive heart failure
lumped parameter model
left ventricle workload
energy cost
direct workload calculation