Abstract

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world. Amongst the many cardiovascular diseases, heart valve failure is a common reoccurrence. Patient safety has risen to being a top priority focus for every field of medicine therefore heart simulators are implemented and expected to contribute immensely to the medical training of physicians, medical device testing and the study of cardiovascular fluid dynamics. Common methods to studying cardiovascular fluid dynamics have been the use of Doppler echocardiography or 2D plane analysis using particle image velocimetry. The objective of this thesis is to design an innovated 3D printed heart simulator which is completely mobile and M.R.I. (magnetic resonance imaging)-compatible which can obtain results that are not possible with present methods. The 3D printed heart simulator created for this dissertation was named the MaxTron system. Among the many heart diseases that could be modeled with the system, aortic regurgitation was chosen to demonstrate one of its many capabilities. Simulation was controlled through guided wires entering the 3D printed representation of the left side of a male patient’s heart. Each leaflet of the aortic heart valve could be independently controlled to represent different severities of the disease. Results demonstrate the accuracy of 4D flow readings and the versatility of the MaxTron system. Vortex formation and particle pathlines formed by aortic regurgitation and mitral inflow interaction can be observed from any angle or plane during both diastolic and systolic phases. Lifelike heart valves perform better for M.R.I. experiments when compared to both mechanical and bio-prosthetic heart valves that contain metal components which are less M.R.I.-compatible.