Interactive 3D Human Heart Simulations on Segmented Human MRI Hearts.

ABSTRACT

Understanding cardiac arrhythmic mechanisms and developing new strategies to control and terminate them using computer simulations requires realistic physiological cell models with anatomically accurate heart structures. Furthermore, numerical simulations must be fast enough to study and validate model and structure parameters. Here, we present an interactive parallel approach for solving detailed cell dynamics in high-resolution human heart structures with a local PC's GPU. In vitro human heart MRI scans were manually segmented to produce 3D structures with anatomically realistic electrophysiology. The Abubu.js library was used to create an interactive code to solve the OVVR human ventricular cell model and the FDA extension of the model in the human MRI heart structures, allowing the simulation of reentrant waves and investigation of their dynamics in real time. Interactive simulations of a physiological cell model in a detailed anatomical human heart reveals propagation of waves through the fine structures of the trabeculae and pectinate muscle that can perpetuate arrhythmias, thereby giving new insights into effects that may need to be considered when planning ablation and other defibrillation methods.