Hemodynamics of a Connecting conduit Between the Left Ventricle and the Left Decending Coronary Artery

A new treatment for coronary artery occlusive disease is being developed in which a shunt or conduit is placed directly connecting the left ventricle with the diseased artery at a point distal to the obstruction. To aid in assessing and optimizing its benefit, a computational model of the cardiovascular system was developed and used to explore various design conditions. Simulation results indicate that in complete LAD occlusion, flow can be returned to approximately 65% of normal if the conduit resistance is equal for forward and reverse flow, increasing to 80% in the limit in which backflow resistance is infinite. Increases in flow rate produced by asymmetric flow resistance are considerably enhanced in the case of a partial LAD obstruction since the primary effect of resistance asymmetry is to prevent leakage back into the ventricle("steal") during diastole. Increased arterial compliance has little effect on net flow with a symmetric shunt, but leads to considerable augmentation when the resistance is asymmetric. These results suggest that an LV-LAD conduit will be beneficial when stenosis resistance(Rst) > 27 PRU if resistance is symmetric.