Frontiers in Physiology (Jun 2018)

Application of Patient-Specific Computational Fluid Dynamics in Coronary and Intra-Cardiac Flow Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities

  • Liang Zhong,
  • Liang Zhong,
  • Jun-Mei Zhang,
  • Jun-Mei Zhang,
  • Boyang Su,
  • Ru San Tan,
  • Ru San Tan,
  • John C. Allen,
  • Ghassan S. Kassab

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00742
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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The emergence of new cardiac diagnostics and therapeutics of the heart has given rise to the challenging field of virtual design and testing of technologies in a patient-specific environment. Given the recent advances in medical imaging, computational power and mathematical algorithms, patient-specific cardiac models can be produced from cardiac images faster, and more efficiently than ever before. The emergence of patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has paved the way for the new field of computer-aided diagnostics. This article provides a review of CFD methods, challenges and opportunities in coronary and intra-cardiac flow simulations. It includes a review of market products and clinical trials. Key components of patient-specific CFD are covered briefly which include image segmentation, geometry reconstruction, mesh generation, fluid-structure interaction, and solver techniques.

Keywords