Statistical Shape Modeling for Cavopulmonary Assist Device Development: Variability of Vascular Graft Geometry and Implications for Hemodynamics

In this study, we focus on the ex tra cardiac conduit (ECC) vascular graft connecting IVC and pulmonary arteries (PAs) as one possible landing zone for a CPAD and describe its geometric variability in a cohort of 18 patients that had their TCPC realized with a 20 mm vascular graft. We report traditional morphometric parameters and apply statistical shape modeling (SSM) to determine the main contributors of graft shape variability. Such information may prove useful when designing CPADs that are adapted to the challenging anatomical boundaries in Fontan patients. We further compute the anatomical mean 3D graft shape (template graft) as a representative of key shape features of our cohort and prove this template graft to be a significantly better approximation of population and individual patient’s hemodynamics than a commonly used simplified tube geometry. We therefore conclude that statistical shape modeling results c an provide better models of geometric and hemodynamic boundary conditions associated with complex cardiac anatomy, which in turn may impact on improved cardiac device development.
Source: Journal of Medical Devices, Transactions of the ASME - Category: Medical Equipment Source Type: research