Impact of body movement on the aortic valve hemodynamics, an ex-vivo experimental study

During intense physical activity, e.g., running, the human body raises cardiac output as a natural physiological response. Research concerning the human body's systemic response to elevated heart rate is well understood while little information exists about how intense movements of the human body physically impact the hemodynamics of the cardiac system. We hypothesize intense movements of the body will alter the hemodynamic interaction between the vessel wall and blood, a phenomenon that needs to be quantitatively evaluated. This study uses an ex-vivo experimental approach to quantify how movements of the human body impact the hemodynamics around the aortic valve beyond the typical physiological response. Utilizing a data collection system the team records the physical movement and cardiac response of a test subject performing physically intensive activities. The test subject data is then used to drive a six-degrees-of-freedom motion simulation platform for ex-vivo lab testing. An aortic valve model is placed on the motion simulation platform where a high-speed PIV camera system is used to measure changes in the hemodynamics when subjected to simulated physical activity. Two independent variables exist for laboratory testing: model inlet flow rate, and simulated movement. In the reference group, we measure the hemodynamics of the system while changing the inlet flow rate with the motion simulation platform at rest. In the test group, we record the system's hemodynamic response over the same variable inlet flow rates while also driving the motion simulation platform to mimic real-world conditions. Finally, we discuss differences in the hemodynamics between these two test groups.