Mathematical model of the mitral valve and the cardiovascular system Application for studying and monitoring valvular pathologies

A cardiovascular and circulatory system (CVS) model has been validated in silico, and in several animal model studies. It accounts for valve dynamics using Heaviside functions to simulate a physiologically accurate "open on pressure, close on flow" law. Thus, it does not consider the real time scale of the valve aperture dynamics, and therefore does not fully capture valve dysfunction, particularly where the dysfunction involves partial closure. This research describes a new closed-loop CVS model, including a description of the progressive aperture of the mitral valve, and is valid over the full cardiac cycle. This new model is solved for a healthy and diseased mitral valve.