Laboratorio di Simulazione Computazionale e 3D

Department of Biomechanical Engineering

▪ Bioengineering research in the field of computational biomechanics, in particular regarding cardiovascular biomechanics.▪ Development of patient-specific finite element models (FEM) and fluid-structure interaction (FSI) models of the cardiovascular system: mitral valve, aortic root, left ventricle.▪ Patient-specific cardiovascular analysis through elaboration of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging using phase-contrast 3D sequences (4D Flow).

AN IMAGE–BASED FRAMEWORK FOR THE BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF MITRAL VALVE PROLAPSE REPAIRIsolated posterior leaflet prolapse is the most frequent pathologic dysfunction of degenerative mitral valve (MV) prolapse; well-established and conservative surgical techniques, based on artificial neochordae implantation, are nowadays available as well as minimally invasive and percutaneous strategies can be adopted. Neochordoplasty is less invasive than MV resection and allows for “respecting rather than resecting” the diseased MV leaflet; however, a long-standing experience is required to intraoperatively select the appropriate neochordal configuration and precisely assess neochordal length. The Mitraclip® device is the only percutaneous system for edge-to-edge currently approved for clinical use in humans and feasible as a standalone approach in some clinical scenarios.A patient-specific modeling strategy was developed for the assessment of MV prolapse from in vivo cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI). Subsequently, finite element (FE) models were run to quantitatively compare, for the first time and on a patient-specific basis, the biomechanical effects of a broad spectrum of different neochordal implantation techniques for the repair of isolated posterior MV prolapse, focusing on the impact of surgical precision in setting neochordal length on postoperative MV biomechanics. Also, a novel computational approach to the most recent Mitraclip® percutaneous technique was proposed to simulate MV biomechanics, throughout the entire cardiac cycle, before and after the device implantation, assessing the biomechanical impact of the procedure on MV apparatus.