This project can be regarded as the continuation of a former
project supported by INDAM in 2004, entitled Integration of
Complex Systems in Biomedicine: models, simulations,
representations that was intended to aggregate the
scientists and the researches carried out in Italy in
different fields with the common denominator of the Applied
Mathematics in Medicine. More specifically, one goal was to
enhance the spread of information among the different
Italian research groups and the contribution of new young
researchers on these topics. Another goal was to identify
the areas of interest in Mathematics, which were worthy to
be furtherly supported.
As a continuation of the project, this new proposal still
aims at aggregating and educating young researchers on only
one (perhaps the most central) topic among the ones
previously considered, namely the mathematical and numerical
modelling of the cardiovascular system with special emphasis
on the heart.
The heart is a complex system where electrical phenomena are
functionally related with the deformations of the wall and
the fluid dynamics of blood. Electrical activity is strictly
related to heart physiology, involving nonlinear reaction
diffusion processes and providing the activation stimulus to
the heart wall dynamics and eventually to the blood dynamics
inside the ventricles. This in turn drives the haemodynamics
in the whole circulatory system. The influence is however
reciprocal. Actually, the circulatory system affects the
heart dynamics inducing an overload depending on individual
physiopathology. As an instance, we can quote the presence
of an abdominal aneurysm or an endoprosthesis. In fact, the
presence of a disconitnuity in the structural properties of
the aorta, such as the one induced by the presence of the
prosthesis, induces reflections in the blood pressure wave
that affect the heart dynamics and metabolism.
So far, all these aspects have been investigated separately.
This is due to the intrinsic complexity of the different
topics, that has required the set up of specific
mathematical and numerical techniques. At the moment,
however, the development of models and techniques in these
fields has reached a good level of accuracy and efficiency
that makes the investigations of specific methods for their
numerical coupling affordable. This is a complex task and
will require a huge effort both in the analysis of coupled
models and in the set up of suitable numerical methods.
After the first step carried out in the framework of the
previous project, that was devoted to the investigation of
the basic features of the different class of problems
(electrical activity, wall and blood mechanics) which are
mandatory in the coupling, in this project we aim at
developing a first coupled numerical electromechanical model
based on simplified descriptions of the different dynamics.
Obviously, this has to be considered as the second step in a
research which is supposed to be developed over a few years
and will require the contribution of young researchers and
an intensive educational activity. In this perspective, a
distinctive feature of this project will be the involvement
of medical doctors (cardiologists and surgeons in
particular) for educational purposes, for models development
and validation of the results. Another relevant feature is
software delivering: the research team we would like to
assemble has good programming skills and software facilities
that will be extensively employed in the development of the
present project and of the overall goal of setting up an
electro-fluid-mechanical simulator of the heart.Project