RESEARCH

My main research focus is in predictive computational simulations in support of invasive interventions in children with congenital heart disease, specifically children with univentricular heart.

• Press release om denna forskning (Svenska)
• Press release about this research (English)

Approximately 1% of children are born with heart deftects. Some can be of such severity that an invasive intervention is required. In cases when the heart defect is such that the heart cannot simultaneously provide circulation to the lungs and to the rest of the body, the situation can be somewhat alleviated by surgically connecting the heart so that it only pumps blood to the aorta and not to the lungs. The patient is then said to have a univentricular heart. Returning venous blood from the body is connected directly to the lungs, completely bypassing the heart.

It follows that these children have slightly lower oxygen saturation at rest and lower exercise tolerance. Optimizing the blood flow to the lungs is therefore essential.

In this research, computer models based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulate the blood flow path to each lung respectively. The aim is to use these models to evaluate different vascular designs before initial or corrective interventions are performed on the patient. Thus, alternative patient specific interventions can be evaluated, optimized or forgone altogether if the estimated benefit/risk is judged to be too low.