University of California San Francisco

Cardiac Biomechanics Research Lab - Homepage

Lab Co-Directors

Dr. Tseng

Elaine Tseng, MD

Professor of Surgery
Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery

Liang Ge 354x210

Liang Ge, PhD

Assistant Professor of Surgery
Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery

Welcome to the Cardiac Biomechanics Lab

The Cardiac Biomechanics Laboratory is a multi-disciplinary research collaborative that investigates cardiovascular disease and intervention with state-of-the art computational techniques. The heart and cardiovascular system is one of the most complex, dynamic systems in the human body. Derangements of the left ventricle, mitral and aortic valves, and the ascending aorta impart devasting consequences on patients’ lives.

With the advancement of radiographic image processing and through experimental studies of ventricular and aortic tissue, we can construct high fidelity models of the left ventricle, aortic root, and ascending aorta offering an unprecedented degree of data. The techniques of finite element modeling, computational fluid dynamics, fluid structure interaction, and tissue biaxial testing are some of the methods our investigations employ.

Our group aims to usher in the future of cardiovascular disease research with integration of data from patient-specific models scalable to larger datasets representative of the population. We host lab space for computational and experimental studies at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and collaborations exist with faculty and labs at a number of institutions around the country. Drawing from the expertise of tissue biomechanics professors, cardiothoracic surgeons and interventionalists, our group is uniquely positioned to tackle some of the most challenging issues in cardiovascular disease today.

Research
Cardiac Biomechanics Research lab hp banner
Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm and Dissection Approximately 30,000 people in the US are diagnosed with thoracic aortic aneurysms ...
Bi-axial Stretching Apparatus We utilize a custom made biaxial stretcher to determine the biaxial stiffness of certain biologic ...
Borderzone Dysfunction It has been known since the mid 1980s that systolic performance (systolic shortening and wall thickening) ...
Computational Simulation of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common heart valve disease ...

Recent Publications

  1. Comparison of Left Ventricular Function Derived from Subject-Specific Inverse Finite Element Modeling Based on 3D ECHO and Magnetic Resonance Images.
    2024 | PubMed
  2. Temporal evolution of ascending aortic aneurysm wall stress predicts all-cause mortality.
    2024 | PubMed
  3. Height and body surface area versus wall stress for stratification of mid-term outcomes in ascending aortic aneurysm.
    2024 | PubMed
  4. A Simulation Study of the Effects of Number and Location of MitraClips on Mitral Regurgitation
    2023 | UCSF Research Profile
  5. Imaging and Computational Modeling of Tricuspid Regurgitation and Repair
    2023 | UCSF Research Profile

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