# name
Computational model of the fetal heart with Coarctation of the Aorta

# metadata.dc.description[].value
Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Biomèdica. Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut. Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2021-2022. Directors: Patricia Garcia Cañadilla & Bart Bijnens. Tutora: Fátima Crispi.

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
It is thought that altered intrauterine hemodynamics may lead to congenital heart defects, such as
aortic arch abnormalities. Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is one of the most difficult cardiac defects
to diagnose before birth, because of the patency of the ductus arteriosus (DA). It consists of a
narrowing in the aortic isthmus (AoI) causing a decrease of blood flow. Prenatal diagnosis is
important to reduce mortality and morbidity. Nonetheless, prenatal diagnosis has a high rate of
false-positive and false-negatives and local hemodynamics in the CoA is not fully understood. The
aim of this project was to improve our understanding of the underlying cause of CoA using
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. We have implemented a computational model with an
idealized geometry of the fetal aorta to investigate the relationship between flow unbalance and
wall shear stress (WSS) at the isthmus-ductus. An imbalanced flow was imposed in the ascending
aorta (AscAo) and ductus to study if a progressive aortic flow reduction suggests the “flowdependency”
of the fetal aortic arch development. As a result, when aortic flow diminished from
50% to 10% progressively, velocity and WSS decreased in the aortic arch and increased in the
distal arch. A redistribution of flow could be observed in the model and a “zero flow zone” could be
noticed between the brachiocephalic artery and left carotid when the flow decreased to from 50%
to 10%. Additionally, another “zero flow zone” could be observed in the AoI when the aortic flow
decreased from 50% to 30%.

# metadata.dc.rights[].value
cc-by-nc-nd (c) Costafreda Martín, Adriana, 2022

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Treballs Finals de Grau (TFG) - Enginyeria Biomèdica

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Computational model of the fetal heart with Coarctation of the Aorta