The objective of the current study is to assess the feasibility of using a left ventricle (LV) model in order to reproduce myocardial strains in the case of ischemic heart disease (IHD).

The proposed integrated LV model couples a finite element method (FEM) sub-model of the cardiac electrical activity, representing the propagation of the transmembrane potential through the LV, a FEM sub-model of the cardiac mechanical activity, and a lumped-parameter model of the circulatory system that improves the physiological definition of appropriate boundary conditions. Simulations were compared to myocardial strain data obtained from echocardiography, performed on two healthy subjects and two patients diagnosed with chronic IHD.

Results show the model ability to simulate jointly the hemodynamic variables (Systolic and diastolic pressures respectively equal to 110 and 60 mmHg) and myocardial strain curves during each phase of the cardiac cycle. A close match is observed between minimum strains obtained from simulations and clinical data from healthy subjects and IHD patient, with a root mean square error around   and   respectively. The modifications of regional LV systolic strains observed from IHD patients with respect to healthy cases were partially explained by a decrease of regional cardiac stress.

This paper provides a description of a new coupling algorithm between FEM and lumped-parameter models. Results are promising for the analysis of cardiac strains in the context of IHD.