Application of NASTRAN for stress analysis of left ventricle of the heart

Knowing the stress and strain distributions in the left ventricular wall of the heart is a prerequisite for the determination of the muscle elasticity and contractility in the process of assessing the functional status of the heart. NASTRAN was applied for the calculation of these stresses and strains and to help in verifying the results obtained by the computer program FEAMPS which was specifically designed for the plane-strain finite-element analysis of the left ventricular cross sections. Adopted for the analysis are the true shape and dimensions of the cross sections reconstructed from multiplanar X-ray views of a left ventricle which was surgically isolated from a dog's heart but metabolically supported to sustain its beating. A preprocessor was prepared to accommodate both FEAMPS and NASTRAN, and it has also facilitated the application of both the triangular element and isoparameteric quadrilateral element versions of NASTRAN. The stresses in several crucial regions of the left ventricular wall calculated by these two independently developed computer programs are found to be in good agreement. Such confirmation of the results is essential in the development of a method which assesses the heart performance.