Theo Arts

Asynchronous Electrical Activation Induces Asymmetrical Hypertrophy of the Left Ventricular Wall

BACKGROUND Asynchronous electrical activation, induced by ventricular pacing, causes regional differences in workload, which is lower in early- than in late-activated regions. Because the myocardium usually adapts its mass and structure to altered workload, we investigated whether ventricular pacing leads to inhomogeneous hypertrophy and whether such adaptation, if any, affects global left ventricular (LV) pump function. METHODS AND RESULTS Eight dogs were paced at physiological heart rate for 6 months (AV sequential, AV interval 25 ms, ventricular electrode at the base of the LV free wall). Five dogs were sham operated and served as controls. Ventricular pacing increased QRS duration from 47.2+/-10.6 to 113+/-16.5 ms acutely and to 133.8+/-25.2 ms after 6 months. Two-dimensional echocardiographic measurements showed that LV cavity and wall volume increased significantly by 27+/-15% and 15+/-17%, respectively. The early-activated LV free wall became significantly (17+/-17%) thinner, whereas the late-activated septum thickened significantly (23+/-12%). Calculated sector volume did not change in the LV free wall but increased significantly in the septum by 39+/-13%. In paced animals, cardiomyocyte diameter was significantly (18+/-7%) larger in septum than in LV free wall, whereas myocardial collagen fraction was unchanged in both areas. LV pressure-volume analysis showed that ventricular pacing reduced LV function to a similar extent after 15 minutes and 6 months of pacing. CONCLUSIONS Asynchronous activation induces asymmetrical hypertrophy and LV dilatation. Cardiac pump function is not affected by the adaptational processes. These data indicate that local cardiac load regulates local cardiac mass of both myocytes and collagen.

Wall Shear Stress – an Important Determinant of Endothelial Cell Function and Structure – in the Arterial System in vivo

It has been well established that wall shear stress is an important determinant of endothelial cell function and gene expression as well as of its structure. There is increasing evidence that low wall shear stress, as pres- ent in artery bifurcations opposite to the flow divider where atherosclerotic lesions preferentially originate, expresses an atherogenic endothelial gene profile. Besides, wall shear stress regulates arterial diameter by modifying the release of vasoactive mediators by endothelial cells. Most of the studies on the influence of wall shear stress on endothelial cell function and structure have been performed in vitro, generally exposing endothelial cells from different vascular regions to an average wall shear stress level calculated according to Poiseuille’s law, which does not hold for the in vivo situation, assuming wall shear stress to be constant along the arterial tree. Also in vivo wall shear stress has been determined based upon theory, assuming the velocity profile in arteries to be parabolic, which is generally not the case. Wall shear stress has been calculated, because of the lack of techniques to assess wall shear stress in vivo. In recent years, techniques have been developed to accurately assess velocity profiles in arterioles, using fluorescently labeled particles as flow tracers, and non-invasively in large arteries by means of ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging. Wall shear rate is derived from the in vivo recorded velocity profiles and wall shear stress is estimated as the product of wall shear rate and plasma viscosity in arterioles and whole blood viscosity in large arteries. In this review, we will discuss wall shear stress in vivo, paying attention to its assessment and especially to the results obtained in both arterioles and large arteries. The limitations of the methods currently in use are discussed as well. The data obtained in the arterial system in vivo are compared with the theoretically predicted ones, and the consequences of values deviating from theory for in vitro studies are considered. Applications of wall shear stress as in flow-mediated arterial dilation, clinically in use to assess endothelial cell (dys)function, are also addressed. This review starts with some background considerations and some theoretical aspects.

A model of the mechanics of the left ventricle

The relation between cardiac muscle mechanics and left ventricular (LV) pump function is simulated by a mathematical model. In the following article special attention is paid to the relation between LV pressure and LV volume on the one hand and the transmural distribution of sarcomere length and fiber stress on the other. The LV is simulated by a thick-walled cylinder composed of 8 concentric shells. The myocardial material is assumed to be anisotropic. The orientation and sequential activation of the muscle fibers across the LV wall are considered per shell. Twisting of the base with respect to the apex around the axis of the LV is simulated by rotation of the upper cross-sectional surface of the cylinder with respect to the lower one aroud the axis of the cylinder.The model reveals that twisting of the LV is an important means to equalize transmural differences in sarcomere shortening and end-systolic fiber stress. When torsion is allowed, transmural differences in sarcomere shortening and end-systolic fiber stress are less than 18% and 16%, respectively. When torsion is prevented as in most of the models of LV-mechanics described in literature, these transmural differences increase up to 32% and 42%, respectively.

Asymmetric thickness of the left ventricular wall resulting from asynchronous electric activation: a study in dogs with ventricular pacing and in patients with left bundle branch block.

Various kinds of abnormal, asynchronous electric activation of the left ventricle (LV) decrease mechanical load in early versus late activated regions of the ventricular wall. Because myocardium usually adapts its mass to changes in workload, we investigated by echocardiography whether regional differences in wall thickness are present in two kinds of asynchronous electric activation of different origin and conduction pathway: epicardial ventricular pacing in dogs and left bundle branch block (LBBB) in patients. In six dogs, 3 months of epicardial LV pacing at physiologic heart rates decreased the thickness of the early activated anterior wall by 20.5 +/- 8.1% without significantly changing LV cavity area and septal thickness. In a retrospective study of 228 LBBB patients, the early activated septum was significantly thinner than the late activated posterior wall. The asymmetry most pronounced was as large as 10% in 28 patients with LBBB and paradoxic septal motion. No difference in regional wall thickness was present in 154 control patients. In conclusion, chronic asynchronous electric activation in the heart induces redistribution of cardiac mass. This redistribution occurs in hearts, which differ in impulse conduction pathway, disease, and species and is characterized by thinning of early versus late activated myocardium.

Dependence of local left ventricular wall mechanics on myocardial fiber orientation: a model study

The dependence of local left ventricular (LV) mechanics on myocardial muscle fiber orientation was investigated using a finite element model. In the model we have considered anisotropy of the active and passive components of myocardial tissue, dependence of active stress on time, strain and strain rate, activation sequence of the LV wall and aortic afterload. Muscle fiber orientation in the LV wall is quantified by the helix fiber angle, defined as the angle between the muscle fiber direction and the local circumferential direction. In a first simulation, a transmural variation of the helix fiber angle from +60 degrees at the endocardium through 0 degrees in the midwall layers to -60 degrees at the epicardium was assumed. In this simulation, at the equatorial level maximum active muscle fiber stress was found to vary from about 110 kPa in the subendocardial layers through about 30 kPa in the midwall layers to about 40 kPa in the subepicardial layers. Next, in a series of simulations, muscle fiber orientation was iteratively adapted until the spatial distribution of active muscle fiber stress was fairly homogeneous. Using a transmural course of the helix fiber angle of +60 degrees at the endocardium, +15 degrees in the midwall layers and -60 degrees at the epicardium, at the equatorial level maximum active muscle fiber stress varied from 52 kPa to 55 kPa, indicating a remarkable reduction of the stress range. Moreover, the change of muscle fiber strain with time was more similar in different parts of the LV wall than in the first simulation. It is concluded that (1) the distribution of active muscle fiber stress and muscle fiber strain across the LV wall is very sensitive to the transmural distribution of the helix fiber angle and (2) a physiological transmural distribution of the helix fiber angle can be found, at which active muscle fiber stress and muscle fiber strain are distributed approximately homogeneously across the LV wall.

Regional fibre stress-fibre strain area as an estimate of regional blood flow and oxygen demand in the canine heart.

1. In the present study the relation between regional left ventricular contractile work, regional myocardial blood flow and oxygen uptake was assessed during asynchronous electrical activation. 2. In analogy to the use of the pressure‐volume area for the estimation of global oxygen demand, the fibre stress‐fibre strain area, as assessed regionally, was used to estimate regional oxygen demand. The more often used relation between the pressure‐sarcomere length area and regional oxygen demand was also assessed. 3. Experiments were performed in six anaesthetized dogs with open chests. Regional differences in mechanical work were generated by asynchronous electrical activation of the myocardial wall. The ventricles were paced from the right atrium, the left ventricular free wall, the left ventricular apex or the right ventricular outflow tract. Regional fibre strain was measured at the epicardial anterior left ventricular free wall with a two‐dimensional video technique. 4. Regional fibre stress was estimated from left ventricular pressure, the ratio of left ventricular cavity volume to wall volume, and regional deformation. Total mechanical power (TMP) was calculated from the fibre stress‐fibre strain area (SSA) and the duration of the cardiac cycle (tcycle) using the equation: TMP = SSA/tcycle. Regional myocardial blood flow was measured with radioactive microspheres. Regional oxygen uptake was estimated from regional myocardial blood flow values and arteriovenous differences in oxygen content. 5. During asynchronous electrical activation, total mechanical power, pressure‐sarcomere length area, myocardial blood flow and oxygen uptake were significantly lower in early than in late activated regions (P < 0.05). 6. Within the experiments, the correlation between the pressure‐sarcomere length area and regional oxygen uptake was not significantly lower than the one between total mechanical power (TMP) and regional oxygen uptake (VO2,reg). However, variability of this relation between the experiments was less for total mechanical power. Pooling all experimental data revealed: VO2,reg = k1 TMP+k2, with k1 = 4.94 +/‐ 0.31 mol J‐1 k2 = 24.2 +/‐ 1.9 mmol m‐3 s‐1 (means +/‐ standard error of the estimate). 7. This relation is in quantitative agreement with previously reported relations between the pressure‐volume area and global oxygen demand. The results indicate that asynchronous electrical activation causes a redistribution of mechanical work and oxygen demand and that regional total mechanical power is a better and more general estimate of regional oxygen demand than the regional pressure‐sarcomere length area.

Description of the deformation of the left ventricle by a kinematic model.

A model of left ventricular (LV) kinematics is essential to identify the fundamental physiological modes of LV deformation during a complete cardiac cycle as observed from the motion of a finite number of markers embedded in the LV wall. Kinematics can be described by a number of modes of motion and deformation in succession. An obvious mode of LV deformation is the ejection of cavity volume while the wall thickens. In the more sophisticated model of LV kinematics developed here, seven time-dependent parameters were used to describe not only volume change but also torsion and shape changes throughout the cardiac cycle. Rigid-body motion required another six parameters. The kinematic model employed a deformation field that had no singularities within the myocardium, and all parameters describing the modes of deformation were dimensionless. Note that torsion, volume and symmetric shape changes all require the definition of a cardiac coordinate system, which has generally been related to the measured cardiac geometry by reference to approximate anatomical landmarks. However, in the present study the coordinate system was positioned objectively by a least-squares fit of the kinematic model to the measured motion of markers. Theoretically, at least five markers are needed to find a unique set of parameters.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Three-Wall Segment (TriSeg) Model Describing Mechanics and Hemodynamics of Ventricular Interaction

A mathematical model (TriSeg model) of ventricular mechanics incorporating mechanical interaction of the left and right ventricular free walls and the interventricular septum is presented. Global left and right ventricular pump mechanics were related to representative myofiber mechanics in the three ventricular walls, satisfying the principle of conservation of energy. The walls were mechanically coupled satisfying tensile force equilibrium in the junction. Wall sizes and masses were rendered by adaptation to normalize mechanical myofiber load to physiological standard levels. The TriSeg model was implemented in the previously published lumped closed-loop CircAdapt model of heart and circulation. Simulation results of cardiac mechanics and hemodynamics during normal ventricular loading, acute pulmonary hypertension, and chronic pulmonary hypertension (including load adaptation) agreed with clinical data as obtained in healthy volunteers and pulmonary hypertension patients. In chronic pulmonary hypertension, the model predicted right ventricular free wall hypertrophy, increased systolic pulmonary flow acceleration, and increased right ventricular isovolumic contraction and relaxation times. Furthermore, septal curvature decreased linearly with its transmural pressure difference. In conclusion, the TriSeg model enables realistic simulation of ventricular mechanics including interaction between left and right ventricular pump mechanics, dynamics of septal geometry, and myofiber mechanics in the three ventricular walls.

Mapping Displacement and Deformation of the Heart With Local Sine-Wave Modeling

The new SinMod method extracts motion from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-tagged (MRIT) image sequences. Image intensity in the environment of each pixel is modeled as a moving sine wavefront. Displacement is estimated at subpixel accuracy. Performance is compared with the harmonic-phase analysis (HARP) method, which is currently the most common method used to detect motion in MRIT images. SinMod can handle line tags, as well as speckle patterns. In artificial images (tag distance six pixels), SinMod detects displacements accurately (error < pixels). Effects of noise are suppressed effectively. Sharp transitions in motion at the boundary of an object are smeared out over a width of 0.6 tag distance. For MRIT images of the heart, SinMod appears less sensitive to artifacts, especially later in the cardiac cycle when image quality deteriorates. For each pixel, the quality of the sine-wave model in describing local image intensity is quantified objectively. If local quality is low, artifacts are avoided by averaging motion over a larger environment. Summarizing, SinMod is just as fast as HARP, but it performs better with respect to accuracy of displacement detection, noise reduction, and avoidance of artifacts.

Optimization of cardiac fiber orientation for homogeneous fiber strain during ejection

AbstractThe strain of muscle fibers in the heart is likely to be distributed uniformly over the cardiac walls during the ejection period of the cardiac cycle. Mathematical models of left ventricular (LV) wall mechanics have shown that the distribution of fiber strain during ejection is sensitive to the orientation of muscle fibers in the wall. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that fiber orientation in the LV wall is such that fiber strain during ejection is as homogeneous as possible. A finite-element model of LV wall mechanics was set up to compute the distribution of fiber strain at the beginning (BE) and end (EE) of the ejection period of the cardiac cycle, with respect to a middiastolic reference state. The distribution of fiber orientation over the LV wall, quantified by three parameters, was systematically varied to minimize regional differences in fiber shortening during ejection and in the average of fiber strain at BE and EE. A well-defined optimum in the distribution of fiber orientation was found which was not significantly different from anatomical measurements. After optimization, the average of fiber strain at BE and EE was 0.025 ± 0.011 (mean ± standard deviation) and the difference in fiber strain during ejection was 0.214 ± 0.018. The results indicate that the LV structure is designed for maximum homogeneity of fiber strain during ejection.