Date of Award

Fall 1990

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biomedical Engineering

First Advisor

Myklebust, Joel

Second Advisor

Warltier, David

Abstract

Although measurement of left ventricular pressure has become a routine procedure in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, the same cannot be claimed for instantaneous changes of left ventricular chamber volume. This is unfortunate in light of the many useful indices of ventricular performance obtainable from the pressure-volume plane. The impedance catheter method of volume measurement, despite showing great promise as a real time measure of left ventricular chamber volume, has received only minimal clinical acceptance due to difficulties with calibration of the system. These difficulties stem from the broad assumptions inherent in the technique. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the validity of several of these assumptions using a two dimensional finite element model of the heart and surrounding tissues. In addition, an in vivo model was used to demonstrate the ability of this technique to quantify global changes in ventricular function during acute coronary artery occlusion.

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