AN ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF ALONG-FIBER TO CROSS-FIBER ELASTIC-MODULUS RATIO IN VENTRICULAR MYOCARDIUM - A FEASIBILITY STUDY

The myocardium of the left ventricle of the heart is a fibrous structu re, the fibres being wound helically anticlockwise on the epicardium a nd changing progressively through the wall thickness to being wound he lically clockwise on the endocardium. At any point, therefore, the mat erial can be considered as transversely isotropic. For mechanically mo delling the ventricle. two independent material propel-ties, the along -fibre and across-fibre moduli of elasticity are required. This paper describes a computer method for determining these by using a finite el ement model and matching cavity volume and ventricle length against va lues derived from cineangiographic and pressure data. The method is ap plied to a group of patients with various cardiac diagnoses and the mo dular ratios for their myocardia are derived. (C) 1998 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.