The geometric model of the human mitral valve.

Abstract

The mitral valve, which lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle, plays an important role in controlling the uniflux of blood from the left atrium to the left ventricle as one of the four human heart valves. A precise description of the shape of human mitral valve has vital significance in studying its physiological structure and periodic movement. Unsatisfyingly, there is almost no unified mathematical description of the same shape of human mitral valve in literature. In this paper, we present a geometric model for human mitral valve, as an elastic shell with a special shape. Parametric equations for the shape of human mitral valve are provided, including the anterior and the posterior parts, which can be thought as portions of two interfacing semi-elliptic cylindrical shells. The minor axis of one ellipse is equal to the major axis of the other. All the parameters are determined from the statistical data. Comparison of fitting results with existing examples validates the accuracy of our geometric model. Based on the fitting shape, one can further simulate the physiological function of the mitral valve using a suitable dynamic physical equation.