Cardiovascular haemodynamics: Advancement of numerical and experimental diagnostic tools

Abstract

OverviewCardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the main cause of death in developed world. After a few decades of research, the clear anatomic functional and haemodynamic interdependency of cardiovascular assemblies and the use of various simulation tools to analyse such interactions are well recognized and documented. [1][2][3][4] In line with this recent advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), laser diagnostics and imagining processing have introduced new methodologies to study the CVDs and the mechanisms underlying their pathology. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Knowledge gained from implementing these tools has led to the development of successful therapies and novel tools to characterize these clinical conditions and assist in the development of a precise, preventive and predictive treatment for CVDs. Moreover, new designs of various artificial devices to aid the functionality of the heart and main blood vessels, such as ventricular assist devices (VADs), stents and valves, have been widely proposed and implemented with various degrees of success.12-18 However, research is still ongoing as there is a need to develop a rigorous synergy between advanced simulation tools and experimental diagnostic methodologies.In this Special Issue of CVDs, a total of 12 articles were submitted of which only 5 have been accepted after rigorous reviewing. We are pleased to present such excellent work in our journal. The 5 articles include the work of Hu and Cai, who investigated the flexible deformation of the guide wire in a force feedback device of virtual cardiovascular surgery to determine the optimal length of the guide wire. The authors experimentally determined the performance of force transmission by varying the length of the guide wire and determined the optimal length of the wire that gave maximum force to the actuator. Such approach can be equally applied to optimize and enhance the dynamic performance of other catheter-type surgery instruments.Ga˚rdhagen et al. used large eddy simulation (LES) method to examine the haemodynamic of the coartation of the aorta (CoA) and post-stenosis dilatation. In this study, different haemodynamic parameters associated with the vascular dysfunction risk factors before and after CoA repair were used in the analysis. They confirmed that turbulence fluctuations, the direct jet impact and/or the combination of both could lead to initiation of post-stenosis dilatation which may instigate