Professor Michael Sacks gave the keynote lecture at the International Conference on Computational, Mathematical, and Biomedical Engineering in Cachan, France.
Professor Michael Sacks gave the keynote lecture at the International Conference on Computational, Mathematical, and Biomedical Engineering in Cachan, France.
His lecture, entitled "On the development of an anatomical, structural, and biomechanical integrated model of the mitral valve," presented state-of-the-art of mitral valve modeling techniques, with an emphasis on what is known and investigated at various length scales.
High-fidelity computer simulations provide a means to connect the cellular function with the organ-level mitral valve (MV) tissue mechanical responses, and to help the design of optimal MV repair strategy, Sacks told the group of physicians, academicians, and industry attendees.
"As in many physiological systems, one can approach heart valve biomechanics from using multiscale modeling (MSM) methodologies, since mechanical stimuli occur and have biological impact at the organ, tissue, and cellular levels." he said. "Yet, MSM approaches of heart valves are scarce, largely due to the major difficulties in adapting conventional methods to the areas where we simply do not have requisite data."
There also remains both theoretical and computational challenges to applying traditional MSM techniques to heart valves, he said. Moreover, existing physiologically realistic computational models of heart valve function make many assumptions, such as a simplified micro-structural and anatomical representation of the MV apparatus, and thorough validations with in-vitro or in-vivo data are still limited.
The event was sponsored as an International Association for Computational Mechnical special interest conference.
Sacks holds the W. A. "Tex" Moncrief, Jr. Simulation-Based Engineering Science Chair and is director of the ICES Center for Cardiovascular Simulation.
