Numerical assessment of coaptation for auto-pericardium based aortic valve cusps

Aortic valve disease accounts for 45% of deaths from heart valve diseases.% \cite{Coffey2015}. An appealing approach to treat aortic valve disease is surgical replacement of the valve leaflets based on chemically treated autologous pericardium. This procedure is attractive due to its low cost and high effectiveness. We aim to develop a computational technology for patient-specific assessment of reconstructed aortic valve function that can be used by surgeons at the preoperative stage. The framework includes automatic computer tomography image segmentation, mesh generation, simulation of valve leaflet deformation. The final decision will be based on uncertainty analysis and leaflet shape optimization. This paper gives a proof of concept of our methodology: simulation methods are presented and studied numerically.