A. Gorodkov et al., ANATOMICAL STRUCTURES DETERMINING BLOOD-FLOW IN THE HEART LEFT-VENTRICLE, Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine, 7(3), 1996, pp. 153-160
The presence of twisted helical flow patterns in the cardiac cavities
during ventricular filling and ejection was supposed. This work was in
tended in order to show that the intraventricular trabeculation plays
the determining role in such a flow formation and to find some analyti
cal approaches for its analysis. The morphometric study of human left-
ventricular and aortic corrosion casts and dynamic measurement of the
aorta by MRI-technique were performed. The data were analysed by means
of the ''Mathematica'' program. Two groups of trabecules were identif
ied that refer to the inlet and outlet of the ventricular blood flow.
The first group consists of trabecules of the free left-ventricular wa
ll. The second group consists of long trabecules going along the anter
ior left-ventricular wall and intracavital lines of the papillary musc
les. Both are twisted clockwise and converge in the flow direction. Ea
ch group of trabecules is oriented towards the mitral or aortic valve
orifices, correspondingly. It was concluded that the helical trabecula
r organization acts as flow directing paddles that change their mutual
orientation during the cardiac cycle evolution. The reorientation of
the flow takes place due to sequential contraction of the ventricular
structures. The formalization of trabecular orientation will allow one
to calculate improved models of implantable substitutes and auxiliary
devices for cardio-vascular surgery.