This academic curriculum module delivers an analytical, biophysical, and computational exposition of cardiovascular engineering, circulatory hemodynamics, mechanical cardiac support systems, vascular endoprostheses, and diagnostic cardiovascular imaging.
Key Technical Topics & Curricular Areas Covered:1. Circulatory Hemodynamics & Governing Physics: Hagen-Poiseuille laminar resistance relationships (R = 8*eta*L / (pi*r^4)), arterial wall shear stress formulations (tau = (Delta_P / L) * (r / 2)), continuity of flow (Q = A * v), and Reynolds number laminar-to-turbulent transition thresholds (Re = rho*v*d / eta) in stenotic coronary vessels.2. Mechanical Circulatory Support & Prosthetic Organs: Total Artificial Hearts (TAH) with autoregulating micro-sensors, continuous-flow Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs) incorporating magnetically levitated impellers, shear-induced hemolysis mitigation, and wireless transcutaneous energy transfer systems (TETS).3. Endovascular Devices & Biomechanics: Bare-Metal Stents (BMS), antiproliferative Drug-Eluting Stents (DES), bioresorbable scaffolds (PLLA), semi-compliant angioplasty balloon dilation mechanics, and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) percutaneous deployment.4. Heart Valve Prostheses: Long-term mechanical fatigue life comparisons between pyrolytic carbon mechanical valves and bovine/porcine bioprosthetic tissue valves, accelerated wear test rigs (ISO 5840 compliance), and systemic anticoagulation trade-offs.5. Multimodal Cardiovascular Imaging: Real-time hemodynamic flow evaluation via color Doppler echocardiography, high-contrast myocardial tissue characterization using cardiac MRI (SSFP / LGE sequences), and 3D volumetric coronary tree reconstruction via contrast-enhanced CTA.6. Modern AI-Era Computational Paradigms: Fourier Neural Operators (FNOs) for real-time 3D hemodynamic Navier-Stokes field prediction; multiscale digital twins for patient-specific LVAD pump speed optimization; and deep convolutional neural networks in intravascular Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT).7. Systems Engineering & Clinical Trade-offs: Mechanical durability versus thrombogenic risks, compliance mismatch in synthetic ePTFE versus autologous saphenous vein bypass grafts, and continuous-flow versus pulsatile systemic perfusion.8. Pedagogical Features: An interactive web-based vessel flow and vascular resistance simulator, multi-tier conceptual and scenario review questions, and step-by-step worked quantitative engineering calculations with explicit physical units.
Format: Open Educational Resource (OER) prepared for persistent archiving on Zenodo and indexing in MERLOT.
Permanent Webpage URL: https://prep4uni.online/stem/physical-technologies/biomedical-engineering/cardiovascular-engineering/
