Computational biomechanics of the aortic root

Authors

  • Ryo Torii Harefield Heart Science Centre, Imperial College London, Harefield, UK
  • Xiao Yun Xu Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
  • Ismail El-Hamamsy Department of Cardiac Surgery, Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal, Canada
  • Raad Mohiaddin Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital and Imperial College London, London, UK
  • Magdi H Yacoub Harefield Heart Science Centre, Imperial College London, Harefield, UK

Abstract

The aortic valve and root perform extremely sophisticated functions that are critically dependent on their topology as well as the structure of their component parts at tissue, cellular and molecular levels. Each of these components is capable of changing its size and shape during different phases of the cardiac cycle. Computational biomechanics offers unique opportunities to study many of these functions in humans. Rapid progress in this field has resulted in the accumulation of a large amount of knowledge relating to this topic. We here describe the application of biomechanics to the study of the aortic root in health and disease as well as following different types of valve preserving and aortic root replacement using biological valves. 

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Published

2016-12-31

Issue

Vol. 2011 No. 2 (2011)

Section

Review articles

License

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.