UCSF

Cardiac growth and remodeling in the form of chamber dilation and wall thinning are typical hallmarks of infarct-induced heart failure. Over time, the infarct region stiffens, the remaining muscle takes over function, and the chamber weakens and dilates. Current therapies seek to attenuate these effects by removing the infarct region or by providing structural support to the ventricular wall. However, the underlying mechanisms of these therapies are unclear, and the results remain suboptimal. Here we show that myocardial infarction induces pronounced regional and transmural variations in cardiac form. We introduce a mechanistic growth model capable of predicting structural alterations in response to mechanical overload. Under a uniform loading, this model predicts non-uniform growth. Using this model, we simulate growth in a patient-specific left ventricle. We compare two cases, growth in an infarcted heart, pre-operative, and growth in the same heart, after the infarct was surgically excluded, post-operative. Our results suggest that removing the infarct and creating a left ventricle with homogeneous mechanical properties does not necessarily reduce the driving forces for growth and remodeling. These preliminary findings agree conceptually with clinical observations.