Left ventricular (LV) volume analysis in small animals has proven difficult because of the small size of the hearts and the rapid heart rate. Furthermore, there is a substantial contribution to the signal from both the blood as well as the muscle. Admittance - based measurement techniques has been proven effective in eliminating the muscular component and estimating the blood component accurately. The key factor that makes this measurement effective is the fact that the measurement is made in the complex plane, which measures both the magnitude as well as the phase of the complex phasor. This dissertation presents the design of a wireless telemetric device that measures impedance magnitude and phase measurements along with pressure from conscious, ambulatory rats. Using this impedance data along with other calibration data such as blood resistivity, stroke volume etc., volume is determined. / text

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published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Philosophy

In this study, lumped parameter cardiovascular modeling has been used to understand the influence of muscle properties on mechanical dyssynchrony (MD) as well as general muscle dynamics. Incorporating viscous influence into the model allowed for an expanded view when analyzing muscle parameter response to MD. A unique method of ventricle segmentation was introduced that allowed fast analysis of regional and global ventricular properties. This segmentation process produced a ventricle with four identical sections each consisting of separately tunable muscle properties in the form of minimum and maximum elastance, elastance waveform delay, and myocardial viscous friction, yet these regional sections remained globally dependent. Elastance waveform delay proved to be the most influential property on MD as measured by internal flow fraction (IFF), followed by regional elastance magnitude, and finally regional viscosity influence. Due to the unique segmentation of this model, two metrics for IFF were derived: (1) the "true" IFF (IFF-4seg) and (2) the IFF as would be measured by an ideal conductance catheter (IFF-CC). The results of IFF-CC versus IFF-4seg show that conductance catheters are not capable of measuring IFF during a side-to-side volume transfer within the stacked cylinder under measurement. Finally, unique energetic situations were observed with this model that point to likely myocardium remodeling situations.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) consistently ranks among the leading causes of death in the United States. The most common subtype of CVD, ischemic heart disease, is a frequent precursor of myocardial infarction and heart failure, most commonly affecting the left ventricle (LV). Today, echocardiography is regarded as the gold standard in screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of LV dysfunction. But while global assessment of LV function tends to be quantitative, cardiologists with specific expertise still perform many regional evaluations subjectively. However, a more objective and quantitative measure of regional function – myocardial strain – has been developed and widely studied using 2D echocardiography. With recent developments in real-time 3D echocardiography (RT3DE), it has become possible to measure strain in its native 3D orientation as well. Our laboratory’s earlier work introduced the Optical Flow (OF) method of strain analysis, which was validated on simulated echocardiograms as well as through animal studies. The principal goal of this thesis is to translate this OF-based method of strain estimation from the research setting to the patient’s bedside. We have performed a series of studies to evaluate the feasibility, accuracy, and reproducibility of OF-based myocardial strain estimation in a routine clinical setting. The first investigation focused on the optimization of RT3DE acquisition and the OF processing pipeline for use in human subjects. Subsequently, we evaluated the capacity of this technique to distinguish abnormal strain patterns in patients with CVD and varying degrees of LV dysfunction. Our analysis revealed that segmental strain measures obtained by OF may have better sensitivity and specificity than the more commonly used global LV strains. Our third validation study examined the reproducibility of these strain measures in both healthy and diseased populations. We established that OF-based strain measures demonstrate repeatability comparable to that achieved by the latest commercial software commonly used in clinical research to estimate 2D or 3D strain. These studies were driven in large part by the absence of a ground truth or accepted gold standard of 3D strain measurements in the human LV. However, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging has had considerable success in measuring some forms of strain in the human LV. We therefore began to develop an image-processing pipeline to derive strain estimates from a new pulse sequence called 3D-DENSE. We further sought to improve the OF pipeline by automating the process of tracking the LV border. To this end, we developed a level-set based technique which tracks the LV endocardium. Our evaluation of its performance on RT3DE data confirmed that this method performs within the limits of inter-observer variability. Overall, our pilot studies of OF-based strain estimation demonstrate that the technique possesses several promising features for improving cardiologists’ ability to quantify and interpret the complex three-dimensional deformations of the human LV.

published_or_final_version / Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Oshinski, John N.; Committee Member: Fyfe, Derek A.; Committee Member: León, Angel R.; Committee Member: Skrinjar, Oskar; Committee Member: Taylor, W. Robert.

Orientadores: José Wilson Magalhães Bassani, Rosana Almada Bassani / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T02:35:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ricardo_RafaeldeAlmeida_D.pdf: 1783057 bytes, checksum: 51a4ed51fbdbcd3a024bf9f16c44793c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: A relação força-freqüência é uma característica intrínseca do músculo cardíaco, e se manifesta de diferentes formas, dependendo da espécie, e seus mecanismos ainda não estão totalmente esclarecidos. Um possível mecanismo é a modificação da liberação de Ca2+ pelo retículo sarcoplasmático (RS), principal fonte do íon para ativar a contração em miocárdio de mamíferos. O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi determinar a relação entre a liberação fracional de Ca2+ do RS (FR) e a freqüência estimulatória em miócito ventricular isolado de rato. O potencial de ação (PA) representativo medido em cada freqüência de interesse foi registrado com a técnica perforated patch clamp em temperatura ambiente (23°C). A corrente de Ca2+ tipo L (ICaL) e o transiente de Ca2+ (D[Ca2+]i, medido com indo-1) foram registrados simultaneamente por meio da técnica action potential clamp. A FR em cada freqüência foi considerada como a relação entre a diferença entre variação total de [Ca2+] e a integral de ICaL, e a carga de Ca2+ do RS ([Ca2+]RS). A duração do PA a 90% de repolarização (APD90) aumentou de 76 ± 9 ms em 0,2 Hz para 130 ± 11 ms em 2 Hz (p<0,05). Em 0,2 Hz, o pico de ICaL foi -4,5 ± 0,7 pA/PF e, com o aumento da freqüência para 2 Hz, foi reduzido para -2,7 ± 0,4 pA/pF (p<0,05). A D[Ca2+]i caiu de 603 ± 56 para 408 ± 32 nM (p<0,05), em 0,2 e 2 Hz, respectivamente. A FR também diminuiu com o aumento da freqüência, de 0,81 ± 0,02 em 0,2 Hz para 0,54 ± 0,02 em 2 Hz (p<0,01), enquanto a [Ca2+]RS permaneceu constante para todas as freqüências utilizadas. O aumento da freqüência estimulatória reduziu a D[Ca2+]i possivelmente devido à redução da FR. É possível que a redução do pico de ICaL, que é o principal trigger de liberação de Ca2+ do retículo sarcoplasmático, seja a principal causa da redução da FR. / Abstract: The force-frequency relationship is an intrinsic characteristic of cardiac muscle. It is manifested in different ways depending on the species, and its mechanisms still remain to be completely understood. A possible mechanism is the variation of Ca2+ release by the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), the main source of the ion for contraction activation in mammalian myocardium. The main goal of this work was to determine the relationship between the fractional SR Ca2+ release (FR) and stimulatory frequency in isolated rat ventricular myocytes. Action potentials (AP) were recorded at 23ºC using the perforated whole-cell patch-clamp technique at different rates, and the representative AP at each rate was used later as stimulus waveforms (action potential clamp). L-type Ca2+ current (ICaL) and intracellular Ca2+ transient (D[Ca2+]i, measured with indo-1) were recorded simultaneously using action potential clamp. FR at a twitch was assumed to be the ratio of the systolic variation in total [Ca2+] minus ICaL integral, and the SR content ([Ca2+]SR). AP duration at 90% repolarization (APD90) increased from 76 ± 9 ms at 0.2 Hz to 130 ± 11 ms at 2 Hz (p<0.05). At 0.2 Hz, ICaL peak was -4.5 ± 0.7 pA/pF, and it decreased to -2.7 ± 0.4 pA/pF with increasing frequency to 2 Hz (p<0.05). D[Ca2+]i decreased from 603 ± 56 nM to 408 ± 32 nM (p<0,05), at 0.2 and 2 Hz, respectively. FR also decreased with frequency, from 0.81 ±0.02 at 0.2 Hz to 0.54 ±0.02 at 2 Hz (p<0.01), whereas [Ca2+]SR did not change significantly. The negative relationship between Ca2+ transient amplitude and stimulation rate is likely to be due to the observed decrease in SR Ca2+ release. Lower FR at higher rates might be due to decrease in ICaL peak, which is the main trigger of SR Ca2+ release. / Doutorado / Engenharia Biomedica / Doutor em Engenharia Elétrica

Orientadores: Antonio Celso Fonseca de Arruda, Aron José Pazin de Andrade / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T22:34:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bock_EduardoGuyPerpetuo_D.pdf: 13813984 bytes, checksum: 77d56e60875323b49182504cf741b892 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Uma Bomba de Sangue Centrífuga Implantável (BSCI) foi projetada e construída para assistência ventricular de longa duração no tratamento de pacientes portadores de doenças cardiovasculares. A proposta do projeto foi desenvolver um Dispositivo de Assistência Ventricular (DAV) com custos reduzidos, originalidade de desenho e tecnologia nacional. A geometria do rotor da bomba, aliando um cone em espiral com aletas centrífugas, deu origem ao pedido de Patente de Invenção (PI 0706163-3). O desenvolvimento de seus sistemas propulsores se inclui no Projeto Temático FAPESP nº 2006/58773-1. A metodologia baseou-se em testes individuais dos mancais, atuador e rotor, seguidos de testes do conjunto da BSCI em bancada, com sangue humano e em animais. Foram realizadas simulações numéricas por computador que resultaram no dimensionamento da bomba e definição da sua geometria. Foi testado o atrito nos mancais e os resultados que apresentaram maior durabilidade foram do par alumina-polietileno. Testes em dinamômetro resultaram na caracterização do propulsor eletromagnético, um motor sem escovas trifásico de corrente contínua, e seu controlador eletrônico baseado na técnica de controle sem sensores. Foram realizados testes de hemólise de acordo com as Normas ASTM F1830 e ASTM F1841 para quantificar os danos causados ao sangue pela BSCI e seu índice de hemólise foi de 0,0054 mg/100L, considerado excelente. Testes prospectivos em animais para avaliação do implante resultaram na possibilidade de posicionamento da bomba no tórax ou abdome. Após os testes realizados, a BSCI projetada e construída foi considerada uma opção segura para o tratamento das doenças cardiovasculares. Como trabalhos futuros, serão realizados mais testes em animais para avaliação do funcionamento da BSCI antes dos testes em pacientes / Abstract: An Implantable Centrifugal Blood Pump was developed for long-term ventricular assistance in cardiac patients. In vitro tests were performed, as wear evaluation, performance tests and hemolysis tests in human blood. Preliminary tests were performed with a non-implantable pump in order to properly locate the inlet port. Numerical computational simulations were performed in order to predict its best geometry. Wear evaluations helped to select the best materials for double pivot bearing system proposed to achieve longer durability. Performance tests pointed the best impeller geometry. The Implantable Centrifugal Blood Pump was compared with other two blood pumps. One is a centrifugal blood pump for cardiopulmonary bypass and the other is a similar implantable device called Gyro - Nedo Pump. The proposed implantable centrifugal blood pump showed the best performance. But, its results showed a strong descendant curve in high flow. Other prototype was manufactured with a different inlet port angle to overcome this problem. According to ASTM, the normalized index of hemolysis (NIH) tests were performed "In Vitro" with human blood in closed circuit (mock loop) in normalized conditions, as flow of 5 L/min and total pressure ahead of 100 mm Hg. After six hours, NIH measured 0.0054 mg/100L that can be considered excellent since it is close to the minimum found in literature (between 0.004 g/ 100L e 0.02 g/ 100L). Prior to evaluate performance during "In Vivo" animal studies, anatomical studies were necessary to achieve best configuration and cannulation for Left Ventricular Assistance. Results were considered satisfactory and "In Vivo" tests will be performed looking forward to implant it in patients / Doutorado / Materiais e Processos de Fabricação / Doutor em Engenharia Mecânica

This study investigated whether acute myocardial ischemia of the anterior left ventricular wall induced an increase in cardiac sympathetic efferent nerve activity and thereby affected regional myocardial blood flow and contractile function.