Understanding healthy ageing heart flow patterns, hemodynamics and energetics using experimental models and age/sex-based three-dimensional blood flow velocity nomograms

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The heart has presented an intellectual challenge throughout mankind history. Since Leonardo's description of trans-valvular vortex formation and his interesting notion of vessel wall layer with eddying motion, the advances in image technology can help us to better understand normal heart hemodynamics. In recent years more evidence supporting the differences between men and women aging heart has come into light. Women's heart hemodynamics, particularly, need to be better understood. In the last three years, I seeded the infrastructure for a dedicated program in 4D flow MRI. The latter provides a whole heart spatial coverage throughout the cardiac cycle allowing for a comprehensive assessment of blood flow hemodynamics. During my postdoctoral fellowships, I developed techniques and methods to assess age and sex hemodynamic differences using 4D flow MRI. The latter motivates the aims of this program. The proposed program undertakes the challenge of expanding our understanding of the healthy ageing human heart using age/sex-based nomograms to build age/sex-based experimental models (Aim 1), the latter will serve to assess the dynamic range of hemodynamic performance (Aim 2), and by assessing (Aim 3) three-dimensional blood flow patterns, hemodynamics, energetic biomarkers and vortex formation will develop strategies for characterizing complex hemodynamics changes due to ageing and biological sex differences. The proposed aims of this program will provide a novel and unique opportunity to investigate the hemodynamic alterations of the healthy aging heart. The latter establishes a novel paradigm for heart modelling. This innovative program will provide an exceptional environment for the training of highly qualified personnel and future academic leaders focused on image-guided modelling and cardiovascular hemodynamics. This environment will be fostered by close interaction between our multidisciplinary scientific team and our established Canadian and international industry partners.