# Simulating Cardiac Surgery for Children with Severe Congenital Heart Disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $122,328

## Abstract

Abstract
Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects approximately 1.2% of children and is the leading cause of birth defect-
related deaths. Single ventricle heart disease (SVHD) is a severe form of CHD, with high morbidity and
mortality. These patients require multiple palliative surgeries, culminating with a total cavopulmonary
anastomosis. Despite considerable improvement in the survival of patients with SVHD, there is increasing
morbidity and mortality over time. It remains unclear why some SVHD patients fail their surgical repairs while
others remain relatively well. Clinicians often rely on 2-dimensional (2D) images acquired from
echocardiograms, catheterizations, or cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) exams to assess SVHD
patients and qualitatively choose the optimal surgical repair. The 2D images, however, lead to a suboptimal
understanding of the complex 3D spatial relationships and hemodynamics, and limit efficient decision making.
To address this deficiency, a free-breathing sequence is developed to acquire 3D cine CMR images of the
heart and great vessels in 10 minutes. The 3D block of data will be used to generate a patient-specific pulsatile
heart model. This heart model will be used to simulate the patient cardiovascular system with a lumped-
parameter model. The lumped-parameter model will be used to simulate different surgical repairs and
quantitatively choose the most optimal repair for each patient. We expect that this platform rationalizes
surgeons' decisions for the best surgical approach and improves the survival rate of patients with SVHD.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11180747
- **Project number:** 7R01HL149807-06
- **Recipient organization:** WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mehdi Hedjazi Moghari
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $122,328
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2020-01-03 → 2025-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11180747

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11180747, Simulating Cardiac Surgery for Children with Severe Congenital Heart Disease (7R01HL149807-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11180747. Licensed CC0.

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