The heart is not only our most vital, but also our most complex organ: Precisely controlled by the interplay of electrical and mechanical fields, it consists of four chambers and four valves, which act in concert to regulate its filling, ejection, and overall pump function. While numerous computational models exist to study either the electrical or the mechanical response of its individual chambers, the integrative electro-mechanical response of the whole heart remains poorly understood. Here we present a proof-of-concept simulator for a four-chamber human heart model created from computer topography and magnetic resonance images. We illustrate the governing equations of excitation-contraction coupling and discretize them using a single, unified finite element environment. To illustrate the basic features of our model, we visualize the electrical potential and the mechanical deformation across the human heart throughout its cardiac cycle. To compare our simulation against common metrics of cardiac function, we extract the pressure-volume relationship and show that it agrees well with clinical observations. Our prototype model allows us to explore and understand the key features, physics, and technologies to create an integrative, predictive model of the living human heart. Ultimately, our simulator will open opportunities to probe landscapes of clinical parameters, and guide device design and treatment planning in cardiac diseases such as stenosis, regurgitation, or prolapse of the aortic, pulmonary, tricuspid, or mitral valve.

中文翻译：

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活体心脏项目：一个强大的综合人体心脏功能模拟器。


心脏不仅是我们最重要的器官，也是最复杂的器官：它由四个心室和四个阀门组成，由电场和机械场的相互作用精确控制，它们协同作用来调节其充盈、射血和整体泵送功能。虽然存在许多计算模型来研究各个心室的电或机械响应，但对整个心脏的综合机电响应仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们提出了一个概念验证模拟器，用于根据计算机地形和磁共振图像创建的四腔人体心脏模型。我们说明了激励-收缩耦合的控制方程，并使用单一、统一的有限元环境将它们离散化。为了说明我们模型的基本特征，我们将人类心脏在整个心动周期中的电势和机械变形可视化。为了将我们的模拟与心脏功能的常见指标进行比较，我们提取了压力-容积关系，并表明它与临床观察结果非常吻合。我们的原型模型使我们能够探索和理解关键特征、物理学和技术，以创建活体心脏的综合预测模型。最终，我们的模拟器将为探索临床参数的情况提供机会，并指导心脏疾病（如主动脉瓣、肺动脉瓣、三尖瓣或二尖瓣的狭窄、反流或脱垂）的设备设计和治疗计划。