Background Patients with atrial fibrillation are at risk of emboli. One of the new techniques for reduce the risk of formation of thrombi in patients with left atrial appendage (LAA) is an invagination. During this proposed new procedure, the LAA is folded into the left atrium. This technique changes the shape of the atrium and may affect the flow profile in it.
Purpose. The goal of the current study was to investigate the influence of the invagination procedure of the LAA on the flow field in the atria.
Methods.The study was based on Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis that simulates the left atria during atrial fibrillation. A comparison of the flow pattern between non invaginated model (Chicken wing model) with an invaginated LAA models (clip and lasso) was performed.
Results. The Chicken wing model velocity and shear rate maximal values (12.5 [cm/sec] and 100 [Hz], respectively) indicates a potential for emboli formation. The lasso model`s velocity and shear rate maximal values (29 [cm/sec] and 207 [Hz], respectively) as well as the clip model (30 [cm/sec] and 204 [Hz], respectively) indicated a meaningful improvement and decreased the risk of thrombus formation.
Conclusions. The invagination process could eliminate low velocities (blood stasis) and low shear rate, and therefore decrease the risk of emboli formation during atrial fibrillation.
Furthermore, the lasso model invagination could be preferable than the clip model.
