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1. Simulating cardiac fluid dynamics in the human heart

   https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae392  

   Davey, Marshall; Puelz, Charles; Rossi, Simone; Smith, Margaret Anne; Wells, David R; Sturgeon, Gregory M; Segars, W Paul; Vavalle, John P; Peskin, Charles S; Griffith, Boyce E (October 2024, PNAS Nexus)

   Faghih, Rose (Ed.)

   Cardiac fluid dynamics fundamentally involves interactions between complex blood flows and the structural deformations of the muscular heart walls and the thin valve leaflets. There has been longstanding scientific, engineering, and medical interest in creating mathematical models of the heart that capture, explain, and predict these fluid–structure interactions (FSIs). However, existing computational models that account for interactions among the blood, the actively contracting myocardium, and the valves are limited in their abilities to predict valve performance, capture fine-scale flow features, or use realistic descriptions of tissue biomechanics. Here we introduce and benchmark a comprehensive mathematical model of cardiac FSI in the human heart. A unique feature of our model is that it incorporates biomechanically detailed descriptions of all major cardiac structures that are calibrated using tensile tests of human tissue specimens to reflect the heart’s microstructure. Further, it is the first FSI model of the heart that provides anatomically and physiologically detailed representations of all four cardiac valves. We demonstrate that this integrative model generates physiologic dynamics, including realistic pressure–volume loops that automatically capture isovolumetric contraction and relaxation, and that its responses to changes in loading conditions are consistent with the Frank–Starling mechanism. These complex relationships emerge intrinsically from interactions within our comprehensive description of cardiac physiology. Such models can serve as tools for predicting the impacts of medical interventions. They also can provide platforms for mechanistic studies of cardiac pathophysiology and dysfunction, including congenital defects, cardiomyopathies, and heart failure, that are difficult or impossible to perform in patients. 

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2. ParaValve: An open source framework for parametric design and fluid–structure interaction simulation of bioprosthetic heart valves in patient-specific aortic geometries

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cagd.2025.102455  

   Saraeian, Mehdi; Corpuz, Ashton M; Hsu, Ming-Chen; Krishnamurthy, Adarsh (July 2025, Computer Aided Geometric Design)

   Heart valve disease (HVD), a significant cardiovascular complication, is one of the leading global causes of morbidity and mortality. Treatment for HVD often involves medical devices such as bioprosthetic valves. However, the design and optimization of these devices require a thorough understanding of their biomechanical and hemodynamic interactions with patient-specific anatomical structures. Parametric procedural geometry has become a powerful tool in enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of design optimization for such devices, allowing researchers to systematically explore a wide range of possible configurations. In this work, we present a robust framework for parametric and procedural modeling of stented bioprosthetic heart valves and patient-specific aortic geometries. The framework employs non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS)-based geometric parameterization, enabling precise control over key anatomical and design variables. By enabling a modular and expandable workflow, the framework supports iterative optimization of valve designs to achieve improved hemodynamic performance and durability. We demonstrate its applicability through simulations on bioprosthetic aortic valves, highlighting the impact of geometric parameters on valve function and their potential for personalized device design. By coupling parametric geometry with computational tools, this framework offers researchers and engineers a streamlined pathway toward innovative and patient-specific cardiovascular solutions. 

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3. On-demand heart valve manufacturing using focused rotary jet spinning

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2023.05.025  

   Motta, Sarah E.; Peters, Michael M.; Chantre, Christophe O.; Chang, Huibin; Cera, Luca; Liu, Qihan; Cordoves, Elizabeth M.; Fioretta, Emanuela S.; Zaytseva, Polina; Cesarovic, Nikola; et al (June 2023, Matter)

   Pediatric heart valve disease affects children worldwide and necessitates valve replacements that remodel and grow with the patient. Current valve manufacturing technologies struggle to create valves that facilitate native tissue remodeling for permanent replacements. Here, we present focused rotary jet spinning (FRJS) for implantable medical devices, such as heart valves, to address this challenge. Combining RJS and a focused air stream, FRJS prints FibraValves, micro- and nanofibrous heart valves, in minutes. The micro- and nanoscale features provide structural cues to orient cells at the biotic-abiotic interface, while the centimeter-scale valve shape regulates cardiac flow. We built valves using poly(L-lactide-co-Ɛ-caprolactone) fiber scaffolds, which supported rapid cellular infiltration and displayed native valve-like mechanical properties. Evaluating clinical translatability, we assessed acute performance in a large animal model using a transcatheter delivery approach. These tests indicate that FRJS is a viable method for manufacturing heart valves and future medical implants. 

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4. High-Order Cardiomyopathy Human Heart Model and Mesh Generation

   https://doi.org/10.22489/CinC.2021.139  

   Mohammadi, Fariba; Shontz, Suzanne M.; Linte, Cristian A. (December 2021, Computing in Cardiology 2021)

   Faithful, accurate, and successful cardiac biomechanics and electrophysiological simulations require patient-specific geometric models of the heart. Since the cardiac geometry consists of highly-curved boundaries, the use of high-order meshes with curved elements would ensure that the various curves and features present in the cardiac geometry are well-captured and preserved in the corresponding mesh. Most other existing mesh generation techniques require computer-aided design files to represent the geometric boundary, which are often not available for biomedical applications. Unlike such methods, our technique takes a high-order surface mesh, generated from patient medical images, as input and generates a high-order volume mesh directly from the curved surface mesh. In this paper, we use our direct high-order curvilinear tetrahedral mesh generation method [1] to generate several second-order cardiac meshes. Our meshes include the left ventricle myocardia of a healthy heart and hearts with dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. We show that our high-order cardiac meshes do not contain inverted elements and are of sufficiently high quality for use in cardiac finite element simulations. 

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5. A high-order space-time Fourier continuation approach for one-dimensional hemodynamics and wave propagation in the entire human circulatory system

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0273041  

   Amlani, Faisal; Pahlevan, Niema M (July 2025, Physics of Fluids)

   Accurate and robust numerical simulation of hemodynamics is of interest for the identification and investigation of important physical or physiological quantities and their relationships to various cardiac and vascular functions. Comprehensive analysis requires efficiently simulating pressure and flow waves that travel and reflect through a complex network of vessels with varying geometric/material properties. This work introduces a new numerical methodology for modeling such wave propagation throughout the (closed-loop) circulation, employing a fast high-order (pseudo)spectral approach for resolving the well-established reduced-order one-dimensional Navier–Stokes hemodynamics formulations (coupled to hyperelastic tube laws) that govern the corresponding fluid–structure dynamics in each vascular segment. The model includes both systemic and pulmonary circulations and four heart chambers and four heart valves. Together with a correspondingly high-order treatment of multiscale zero-dimensional boundary conditions based on time-dependent ordinary differential equations, the overall solver has a number of attractive qualities: high-order accuracy in time and space; fast Fourier transform (FFT)-level computational efficiency; little to no numerical pollution errors (faithfully preserving the diffusion and dispersion characteristics of the underlying continuous operators); relatively mild Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy constraints for explicit temporal integration methods; robustness to extreme physiological parameters; and stable incorporation of the nonlinear and nonstationary coupling to other cardiovascular system components (e.g., heart chambers, valves, and microvasculature). The convergence properties, computational performance, and physiological accuracy of the proposed framework are demonstrated through a variety of numerical experiments that include applications to community benchmark problems previously proposed for mutual validation with other solvers (and three-dimensional or in vitro reference solutions). 

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