Bioengineering Analysis of Three-Dimensional Electromechanical Interactions in the Heart

9634974麦卡洛克心脏是一个复杂的三维肌肉器官，电信号在其中触发协调的肌肉收缩来产生泵浦动作。心脏的电系统不仅影响它的机械泵送，而且机械也影响电系统。这些相互作用的原因已经在单个心肌细胞的水平上进行了非常详细的研究。但是，由于心壁的复杂解剖和结构，了解这些细胞特性如何影响整个心脏的性能变得极其困难。如果要将细胞生物学的新发现应用于心脏病的预防和诊断以及心脏病患者的治疗，这种理解是必不可少的。因此，这项研究的目标是开发解剖上准确的心脏计算机模型，这些模型建立在心脏细胞的潜在物理和生物学基础上。为了测试这些模型，将在仔细的实验中进行准确的测量。在过去五年工作的基础上，我们将使用类似于汽车和航空航天行业使用的分析方法来进行复杂的新心脏计算机模型。我们的方法专门用于处理心脏生物学的独特复杂性。模型VI II是基于对心壁的形状和结构、机械、电学和细胞属性的详细的新测量。因为即使是速度最快的计算机，这些模型也会非常苛刻，所以我们将在圣地亚哥超级计算机中心的超级计算机上运行它们。完成的计算机模型将被用来研究尚未回答的问题，即单个心脏细胞的机电属性如何影响整个心脏的性能。为了测试计算机模型的可靠性和准确性，将开发新的实验方法，同时研究心脏的电和机械特性。这些测量将被用于改进模型，然后可以扩展到分析心脏中机械和其他生理过程之间的相互作用，如血液流动。这些新的计算机模型将在心脏生理学、新的心脏诊断和治疗方法(如心脏超声、核磁共振和起搏器)的生物工程设计中有不同的应用，并作为对医生和患者、科学家、学生和工程师进行教育和培训的模拟工具。

9634974 McCulloch The heart is a complex three-dimensional muscular organ in which electrical signals trigger coordinated muscle contraction to produce the pumping action. Not only does the electrical system of the heart affect its mechanical pumping, but mechanics also affect the electrical system. The cause of these interactions has been studied in great detail at the level of the individual heart muscle cell. But understanding how these cellular properties affect the performance of the whole heart is made extremely difficult by the complex anatomy and structure of the heart wall. Such an understanding is essential if the new findings of cellular biological science are to be applied to the prevention and diagnosis of cardiac disease and the treatment of heart patients. Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop anatomically accurate computer models of the heart that are based soundly on the underlying physics and biology of the heart cells. To test these models, accurate measurements in careful experiments will be conducted. Building on our work over the past five years, we will conduct sophisticated new computer models of the heart using methods of analysis similar to those used in the automotive and aerospace industries. Our methods have been specialized to handle the unique complexities of cardiac biology. The models vi II be based on detailed new measurements of the shape and structure, mechanical, electrical and cellular properties of the heart wall. Because these models will be extremely demanding to even the fastest computers, we will run them on supercomputers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. The completed computer models will be used to investigate unanswered questions about how the electromechanical properties of individual heart cells affect the performance of the whole heart. To test the reliability and accuracy of the computer models, new experimental methods will be developed for simultaneously studying electrical and mechanical properties in the heart. These measurements will be used to improve the models, which can then be extended to analyze interactions between mechanics and other physiological processes in the heart such as bloodflow. 'These new computer models will have diverse applications in cardiac physiology, in the bioengineering design of new cardiac diagnostic and treatment methods (such as cardiac ultrasound, MRI and pacemakers) and as simulation tools for education and training of doctors and patients, scientists, students and engineers. ***