High-Fidelity Simulation of Non-Uniformly Calcified 2D Aortic Valve*

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is prevalent among the elderly, characterized by calcification and stiffening of the aortic valve, resulting in impaired cardiac function. This condition leads to significant health issues such as angina, shortness of breath, syncope, and heart failure, thereby diminishing both quality of life and survival rates. Surgical valve replacement remains the primary treatment, highlighting the critical need for more accurate diagnostic methods to improve management and explore less invasive treatments using computational fluid dynamics.

 While previous studies in the cardiovascular field have provided valuable insights, they often idealize calcification as uniform across the valve leaflets. However, research indicates that calcification predominantly forms around the center of the leaflet arc and near the attachment line. This study aims to conduct hemodynamic analyses on non-uniformly calcified aortic valves by varying rigidity along the leaflets. To achieve this, a 2D patient-specific model of the aortic valve is generated using data from literature and CT scans. High-fidelity simulations are performed using a partitioned fluid-structure interaction framework. The simulations encompass various scenarios of non-uniform calcification distribution across the leaflets, ranging from normal valve conditions to fully calcified leaflets with heavy protein deposits. The predicted results will be utilized to evaluate the accuracy of clinical procedures used to diagnose the severity of aortic stenosis. Key factors such as jet velocity, transvalvular pressure gradient, aortic valve area, oscillatory shear index, wall shear stress distribution along the leaflets, and leaflet profiles throughout the cardiac cycle will be comprehensively investigated.