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    Lab Director

    Mark Ratcliffe, M.D.
    Professor & Vice-Chair, UCSF Dept. of Surgery

    Chief of Surgery, SF VA Medical Center

    Director, Cardiac Biomechanics Lab

    About the lab »

    Finite Element Modeling

    (Image: TrueGrid)
    Using FE analysis to evaluate the effect of linear repair on end-systolic (ES) stress in sheep.

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    Welcome to the Cardiac Biomechanics Lab Site

    What we do...

     Our lab uses the application of mechanical engineering principles in conjunction with cardiac biology, implementing this combination of research to the improvement of cardiac health, to the design and analysis of the diagnosis and/or treatment of cardiac diseases.

    Specialties of the Lab include: 

    • Cardiovascular Monitor Design and Development
    • Quantitative Cardiovascular Physiology
    • Finite Element Analysis
    • Signal Processing and Algorithm Design

    Tools We Use:

    • Finite element software developed specifically for the analysis of 3D stress and strain distributions in beating heart chambers composed of various deformations
    • Biaxial stretching apparatus
    • Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) with myocardial tissue tagging for the measurement of both cardiac geometry and myocardial strain distributions in vivo
    • Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DT-MRI) for the non-destructive measurement of 3D distributions of myocyte orientation ex vivo

     

    Featured Publications

    Ratcliffe MB, Howard C, Mann M, del Nido P
    National Institutes of Health funding for cardiothoracic surgical research.
    The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Aug-01-2008; 1362: 392-7; discussion 398-9.
    Gundiah N, Kam K, Matthews PB, Guccione J, Dwyer HA, Saloner D, Chuter TA, Guy TS, Ratcliffe MB, Tseng EE
    Asymmetric mechanical properties of porcine aortic sinuses.
    The Annals of thoracic surgery, May-01-2008; 855: 1631-8.
    Walker JC, Ratcliffe MB, Zhang P, Wallace AW, Hsu EW, Saloner DA, Guccione JM
    Magnetic resonance imaging-based finite element stress analysis after linear repair of left ventricular aneurysm.
    The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, May-01-2008; 1355: 1094-102, 1102.e1-2.
    Mann M, Tendulkar A, Birger N, Howard C, Ratcliffe MB
    National institutes of health funding for surgical research.
    Annals of surgery, Feb-01-2008; 2472: 217-21.
    Zhang P, Guccione JM, Nicholas SI, Walker JC, Crawford PC, Shamal A, Acevedo-Bolton G, Guttman MA, Ozturk C, McVeigh ER, Saloner DA, Wallace AW, Ratcliffe MB
    Endoventricular patch plasty for dyskinetic anteroapical left ventricular aneurysm increases systolic circumferential shortening in sheep.
    The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Oct-01-2007; 1344: 1017-24.
    Jiang Y, Guccione JM, Ratcliffe MB, Hsu EW
    Transmural heterogeneity of diffusion anisotropy in the sheep myocardium characterized by MR diffusion tensor imaging.
    American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology, Oct-01-2007; 2934: H2377-84.  Epub 2007 Jun 29.
    Ratcliffe MB, Guy TS
    The effect of preoperative diastolic dysfunction on outcome after surgical ventricular remodeling.
    The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Aug-01-2007; 1342: 280-3.
    Gundiah N, B Ratcliffe M, A Pruitt L
    Determination of strain energy function for arterial elastin: Experiments using histology and mechanical tests.
    Journal of biomechanics, 403: 586-94.
    Wall ST, Walker JC, Healy KE, Ratcliffe MB, Guccione JM
    Theoretical impact of the injection of material into the myocardium: a finite element model simulation.
    Circulation, Dec-12-2006; 11424: 2627-35.  Epub 2006 Nov 27.
    Ratcliffe MB
    The treatment of ischemic heart failure with surgical ventricular restoration (SVR): new evidence of benefit.
    Journal of cardiac failure, Apr-01-2006; 123: 195-8.
    Guccione JM, Walker JC, Beitler JR, Moonly SM, Zhang P, Guttman MA, Ozturk C, McVeigh ER, Wallace AW, Saloner DA, Ratcliffe MB
    The effect of anteroapical aneurysm plication on end-systolic three-dimensional strain in the sheep: a magnetic resonance imaging tagging study.
    The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Mar-01-2006; 1313: 579-586.e3.
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