The importance of model parameters and boundary conditions in whole organ models of cardiac contraction

Abstract

We have developed a model of active contraction in the whole heart, using an anatomical geometry of a failing human heart, fitted to MRI data. Deformation in this model was driven by a model of active tension generation in human ventricular myocytes. By perturbing model parameters and boundary conditions we have predicted which metrics of cardiac function are sensitive to different parameters or boundary conditions. This allows us to begin to identify parameters that can be determined from different diagnostic modalities. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.