The cardiac insufficiency (CI) represents the main cause of
hospitalization after the age of 65 years, and the related mortality is
very high. There is nowadays a big interest in this pathology in order
to find efficient therapies. In particular, a great attention has been done to the
ventricular dissincrony (VD) as a possible cause of CI. With this respect, in the
last years the cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) became a possible
therapy. This is based on the simultaneous stimulation of both the ventricles
through an implantable electrical device (IED). With the aim at
diagnosing VD in a patient with CI, the principal indicator used in the
clinical pratice of all the world is the QRS length in the electrocardiogram (ECG), which is easily computable non-invasively. However, in the 30% of the cases this indicator is not trustworthy and
therefore it is necessary to introduce alternative indices. The mathematical and numerical modelling could be an effective tool in the
study of VD and then in finding new indices for its diagnosis.
Thesis
- S. Savare’ – Studio computazionale di ottimizzazione della stimolazione nella terapia di risincronizzazione cardiaca, BSc in Mathematical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Academic year ’13-’14. Advisor: L. Formaggia and C. Vergara
