Abstract
A computational model of the fluid dynamics of intraventricular flow was used to investigate the importance of the effects of flow disturbances existing within the left ventricle (LV) at the onset of diastole on a diastolic flow field. The simulation started with a quiescent flow state; it continued for a number of cardiac cycles to obtain a cyclically repeatable flow. After the flow became periodic, the initial diastolic flow was not quiescent: flow disturbances, remnants of a systolic flow, were present within the LV. Nevertheless, they faded away during an acceleration phase of diastole and almost ceased by the end of this phase. Consequently, a flow field during a deceleration phase of diastole, characterised by the formation of a vortex ring, was hardly affected by the initial flow disturbances. The propagation velocity of a colour M-mode Doppler echocardiogram obtained by scanning velocity along the LV long axis was 0.58m s-1 in the case where diastolic flow was initially quiescent and 0.56m s-1 in the case where flow disturbances existed at the beginning of diastole. These results indicated that the colour M-mode Doppler echocardiographic technique captures flow dynamics produced purely by ventricular expansion, with little influence from initial diastolic flow disturbances.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 509-515 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2004 Jul |
Keywords
- Blood flow
- Colour M-mode Doppler echocardiogram
- Computational fluid dynamics
- Diastole
- Left ventricle
- Systole
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biomedical Engineering
- Computer Science Applications