OPTIMIZING VENTRICULAR WORK: A MATTER OF CONSTRAINTS

摘要

The analysis of aortic blood pressure and flow represent an important tool to predict cardiovascular risk. A Windkessel model relating pressure and flow, together with an optimal performance criterion of left-ventricular work,is used to generate the aortic flow pattern for a given central pressure curve. For the corresponding optimization problem, different physiologically relevant constraints are specified, but due to the limited number of degrees of freedom not all of them can be included at once. The optimization problem is solved with every possible combination of constraints and the resulting flow and pressure curves are analyzed. These waveforms show that the choice of constraints strongly affects the accuracy of the generated curves. Constraining aortic flow during diastole appears to be the best choice, but a physiologically shaped flow and pressure pattern cannot be achieved simultaneously with the applied objective function and constraints.