Patient-specific modelling for surgical planning

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Excellent

- Paedriatics hemodymanics. The repair of congenital heart disease often involves extensive surgical rebuilding of the heart and vessels to create new pathways for blood flow. The early and late results of these operations are dependent on the pattern of blood flow that occurs in these newly created pathways. The pattern of flow is complex, but understanding the nature of flow in these treated subjects is essential for providing good long-term outcomes. The aim of the research activities carried out at LaBS in collaboration with leading cardiothoracic units in Europe and US is to combine recent advances in three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging and mathematical modelling to see if heart surgeons can perform three-dimensional virtual operations to predict outcomes and select the flow design that will offer the best early and late results. - Foetal hemodinamics. Knowledge of the blood flow distribution in the human foetal cardiovascular system and of foetal vascular pressures is crucial in assessing foetal well-being. In recent years, the use of advanced ultrasound techniques has allowed the monitoring of the intact human foetal circulation and the investigation of blood velocity waveforms. Neverthelss, a deep theoretical understanding of the hemodynamic phenomena determining the blood velocity waveform is mandatory. In the light of these considerations, some mathematical models for the investigation of the foetal blood circulation were developed at LaBS, to study both local and global hemodynamics. The adopted approach was validated by comparing the model results with some clinically obtained data and provides a tool to improve prenatal diagnosis and therapy.

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale (DIS)

Docenti afferenti

Associate Professors
Gabriele Dubini
Francesco Migliavacca
Assistant Professors
Giancarlo Pennati