Treatment strategies in congenital heart diseases

The implications beyond the state-of-the-art principally addressed by this project are the development of personalized next generation diagnostic-prognostic tools for patients with congenital heart diseases (CHD) that are based on the innovative combination of imaging science, biofluid mechanics and computer modelling. CHD are characterized by a high level of heterogeneity and therefore evidence based algorithms for medical decision making are very difficult to generate. Moreover, decision making often requires information about cardiovascular blood pressures that can be obtained, thus far, only by invasive cardiac catheterization. Finally, the planning of treatment strategies in children needs to account for variables that change with somatic growth and that are not yet adequately considered with current diagnostic tools. The specific objectives of this research proposal are to develop novel tools to overcome these shortcomings. We aim to implement and validate

1. Methods for calculating non-invasive relative pressure fields in the cardiovascular system that are derived from MRI 4D blood flow data. This method may further replace or at least shorten diagnostic catheterization sessions.
2. Models of computational biofluid mechanics that will, based on entirely MRI data, estimate the immediate haemodynamic effect of interventional procedures; the non-invasiveness of methods is important for their clinical acceptance.
3. Methods to approximate the midterm haemodynamic outcome of specific diseases for conditions with vs. without intervention and by accounting in simulation models for somatic growth.

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