(CFD) Sex Differences in Cardiac Hemodynamics

Ischemic heart disease (IHD), one of the world’s leading causes of mortality, has been shown to affect men and women with varied rate and severity. A number of physiological factors have been suggested as the cause of the differences in cardiac disease progression between men and woman. However, the role that these sex-specific factors play on cardiac flow dynamics, and the differences in cardiac performance that result from sex-specific flow dynamics, are not yet fully understood. Recent work has used four dimensional (4D) flow magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluid dynamic assessment tools to develop metrics for cardiac energetics and cardiac flow pattern assessment in health and disease. This study aims to apply these tools to study cardiac flow metrics and their relation to cardiac functional differences in men and women. 4D flow MRI data has already been collected and analyzed on nineteen healthy volunteers, including ten males and nine females. The flow data was then used to calculate ventricular flow kinetic energy, ventricular efficiency metrics, and various other flow dynamic parameters (i.e. vorticity). Comparisons were made between the data from male and female subjects and differences were observed in ventricular kinetic energy, kinetic energy indices, efficiency indices, and ventricular vorticity. Correlations were also observed between performance parameters and fluid dynamic metrics. In order for this study to be properly powered for statistical analyses, for this part of the study, we are scanning 20 more healthy volunteers, ten male and ten female.