Analysing and simulating the Fluid Structure Interaction of a Left Ventricle Model

The pacemaker micra from medtronics is a very big advancement in technology regarding cardiology mostly due to its small size. However, there is sill a need for a better understanding on where exactly to place the pacemaker inside of the heart. The conventional method of placing the micra is through a vein in the leg and then stopping when the micra is fixed at the heart muscle in the right ventricle. [12] Although this method of implanting has provided good results in terms of the patients’ health and comfort, it would be a great improvement if there would also be a technological assistance as to where the pacemaker would be optimally placed in order to not impact the blood circulation inside of the ventricle.
This thesis focuses on an approach to contribute to this research area by building a digital twin of the ventricle and studying the fluid structure interaction of the blood particles inside of the ventricle with the different positions of the pacemaker placed in this virtual model. The two important sources needed to contribute to this research area were on which computer program the model would be simulated and from where or how to get the real patient’s data that would be suitable for this program.
The simulation program which was used for this thesis was Dassault System’s simulation tool Simulia, the finite element computer aided engineering program Abaqus. [13] And the data which were suitable for this program after formatting via a python code, were from the github repository of the cardiac atlas project. [6] Since the github repository only had the data for the left ventricle, the left ventricle was modelled on Abaqus. Although the conventional method is to implant the micra inside of the right ventricle, the four cardiologists who were asked for their opinions’ on this thesis seemed to suggest it could be a future method to maybe also place the micra inside of the left ventricle. The cardiologists’ area of interest were for the position at the apex and the lateral wall of the ventricle. This is also how the analysis of the fluid structure interaction was then done by analysing the different pressure and velocity behaviours of the blood particles when the pacemaker had a different position.
The solution of the simulation analysis seemed to indicate that at the step time of one second which would indicate the end diastole state of the heart, the position at the apex of the left ventricle was the most optimal. The reason for this was that the blood particles seemed to be minimally impacted velocity and pressure wise by the pacemaker in relation to when it had the position at the lateral wall. So this work shows that the apex could be considered as an optimal position for future implants of the micra inside of the left ventricle. But what it most of all shows and where the aim would be to make a contribution is the benefit of determining the optimal position of a pacemaker with the aid of a digital model and its’ simulations.