computational model of aortic stenosis It is difficult to perform a comprehensive analysis of the mechanical influence of aortic stenosis on the left ventricular function. This approach would require the measurement of a large number of physiological parameters in a large cohort of patients. The use of deterministic modeling and Monte Carlo simulations validated by clinical observations may overcome this dilemma. The ventricular-valvular-vascular (V3) model has thus been developed to better understand how aortic stenosis affects the left heart dynamics. As an example, we showed that coronary flow reserve in patients with aortic stenosis is exponentially related to effective orifice area. We are now interested in the study of ventricular functional status with low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis.
	vectorial blood flow from color doppler Conventional color Doppler only provides partial information on the blood flow in the cardiovascular system. Two-dimensional or three-dimensional vectorial blood flow can be reconstructed with the use of the fundamentals of fluid dynamics. This technique has been tested in the left ventricle of healthy subjects and patients with cardiac disease. 2D or 3D blood flow will be also analyzed in in vitro or in vivo complex geometries like mitral and aortic valvular jets, aneurysms, vascular stenoses…
strain rate imaging of the left ventricular myocardium Tissue Doppler-derived strain rate imaging is subject to potential pitfalls and technical limitations. This method is also highly sensitive to noise and spatial resolution. A new ultrasound technique is being developed to determine longitudinal strains and strain rates all along the longitudinal axis of the myocardium. This novel modality will be tested in vivo and will be used to estimate left ventricular contractility in patients with heart failure.