Modeling and Simulation Support for Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems

The treatment with a ventilator is mandatory whenever a patient's respiratory system becomes unable to keep the concentrations of O2 and CO2 in blood at tolerable levels. There exists a whole range of clinical applications of mechanical ventilation (MV). Severe impairments of the lungs may occur in serious cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and in pneumonia. A ventilator may also be necessary for patients who need ventricular assist device (VAD) assistance. VAD is a mechanical pump that's used in order to support heart function and blood flow in people who have weakened hearts. Thoracic Artificial Lung (TAL) can be regarded as a viable alternative to MV. This lung assist device (LAD) is for instance advantageously used as an interim aid for patients who are waiting on a lung transplant, since, on the one hand, mechanical ventilation would be a contraindication for lung transplantation and, on the other hand, a TAL has the ability to either partially or totally fulfill the function of natural lungs. Both, the application of a MV of the respiratory system and the usage of a TAL give rise to specific interactions with other organs, especially with the cardiovascular system. CARDIOSIM (C), the software simulator of the cardiovascular sistem, can help to study and understand the effects induced on haemodynamic and energetic variables by VAD, MV and TAL. Different modules of CARDIOSIM (C) can reproduce the effects of various types of VAD (pneumatic LVAD, RVAD and BVAD, Hemopump, Puca Pump, Impeller pump), biventricular pacemaker (BiV), intraaortic balloon pump (IABP), MV and TAL.