Asymmetric redirection of flow through the heart

Philip J. Kilner (), Guang-Zhong Yang, A. John Wilkes, Raad H. Mohiaddin, David N. Firmin and Magdi H. Yacoub
Additional contact information
Philip J. Kilner: Royal Brompton Hospital site of Imperial College of Science, Medicine and Technology
Guang-Zhong Yang: Royal Brompton Hospital site of Imperial College of Science, Medicine and Technology
A. John Wilkes: Flow Design Research Group, Emerson College
Raad H. Mohiaddin: Royal Brompton Hospital site of Imperial College of Science, Medicine and Technology
David N. Firmin: Royal Brompton Hospital site of Imperial College of Science, Medicine and Technology
Magdi H. Yacoub: Royal Brompton Hospital site of Imperial College of Science, Medicine and Technology

Nature, 2000, vol. 404, issue 6779, 759-761

Abstract: Abstract Through cardiac looping during embryonic development1, paths of flow through the mature heart have direction changes and asymmetries whose topology and functional significance remain relatively unexplored. Here we show, using magnetic resonance velocity mapping2,3,4,5, the asymmetric redirection of streaming blood in atrial and ventricular cavities of the adult human heart, with sinuous, chirally asymmetric paths of flow through the whole. On the basis of mapped flow fields and drawings that illustrate spatial relations between flow paths, we propose that asymmetries and curvatures of the looped heart have potential fluidic and dynamic advantages. Patterns of atrial filling seem to be asymmetric in a manner that allows the momentum of inflowing streams to be redirected towards atrio-ventricular valves, and the change in direction at ventricular level is such that recoil away from ejected blood is in a direction that can enhance rather than inhibit ventriculo-atrial coupling6. Chiral asymmetry might help to minimize dissipative interaction between entering, recirculating and outflowing streams7. These factors might combine to allow a reciprocating, sling-like, ‘morphodynamic’ mode of action to come into effect when heart rate and output increase during exercise6.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35008075 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:404:y:2000:i:6779:d:10.1038_35008075

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35008075

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().