Computational simulations of the left ventricle revealed that clinical quantities of interest, particularly ejection fraction and ventricular torsion, are highly sensitive to uncertainties in active stress, wall thickness, and fiber direction.
Computational models of cardiac mechanics are highly sensitive to active stress, wall thickness, and fiber direction, highlighting the need for precise estimation of these parameters to improve model reliability.
Patient-specific computer simulations can be a powerful tool in clinical applications, helping in diagnostics and the development of new treatments. However, its practical use depends on the reliability of the models. The construction of cardiac simulations involves several steps with inherent uncertainties, including model parameters, the generation of personalized geometry and fibre orientation assignment, which are semi-manual processes subject to errors. Thus, it is important to quantify how these uncertainties impact model predictions. The present work performs uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analyses to assess the variability in important quantities of interest (QoI). Clinical quantities are analysed in terms of overall variability and to identify which parameters are the major contributors. The analyses are performed for simulations of the left ventricle function during the entire cardiac cycle. Uncertainties are incorporated in several model parameters, including regional wall thickness, fibre orientation, passive material parameters, active stress and the circulatory model. The results show that the QoI are very sensitive to active stress, wall thickness and fibre direction, where ejection fraction and ventricular torsion are the most impacted outputs. Thus, to improve the precision of models of cardiac mechanics, new methods should be considered to decrease uncertainties associated with geometrical reconstruction, estimation of active stress and of fibre orientation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Uncertainty quantification in cardiac and cardiovascular modelling and simulation'.
Campos et al. (Mon,) conducted a other in Left ventricular function (computational simulation). Variation of cardiac mechanics model parameters (active stress, wall thickness, fiber direction) vs. Baseline simulation parameters was evaluated on Variability (Coefficient of Variation) and Sobol sensitivity indices of clinical quantities of interest (e.g., ejection fraction, ventricular torsion). Computational simulations of the left ventricle revealed that clinical quantities of interest, particularly ejection fraction and ventricular torsion, are highly sensitive to uncertainties in active stress, wall thickness, and fiber direction.