Author: Harrison Dean Major: Biomedical Engineering
Updating research group members on progress with circulation code.
Within the human body, there are many structures and intricate processes that take place. Everything works in tandem to ensure that the body can adapt and withstand the dangerous world around it. This does not mean that the body can prevent diseases that arise from birth. Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is an example of this, where certain structural deficits can occur in the heart at birth and lead to devastating consequences. However, the heart has the capability to indicate this earlier than imagined. Certain parameters of the blood flowing within the heart change due to these defects, and they can be quantified. Under Dr. Morten Jensen in the Cardiovascular Biomechanics Laboratory (CBLAB), I have had the opportunity to research the idea of establishing standardized values of blood flow parameters to help develop a new method for aid in the diagnosis and treatment of CHD in infants.
In Spring of 2019, I joined the CBLAB because of my immense interest in the heart and the technologies that were associated with it. This was where I became very intrigued by this specific research project which looked at flow parameters within the left ventricle of the heart. In the following year, I began to learn significant amounts about imaging modalities to take videos of the blood flowing within the heart. Additionally, I learned about a coding platform known as MATLAB through the lab itself and my curriculum. MATLAB served as a resource for our research project, so that we could develop a code that could run different calculations of parameters of the blood flow within the left ventricle. In the Spring of 2020, we started to utilize a very novel imaging modality known as Blood Speckle Imaging (BSI). This imaging modality allowed for very high-quality videos to be taken of the heart which incorporated the important blood flow data that was needed for analysis.
In this last semester, Fall 2020, through the guidance of the graduate student on our project, Megan Laughlin, we have been able to continue understanding this novel imaging modality. Over the months, all three of the undergraduate students in the research project have split up to work on different flow parameters to be analyzed. Depending upon the direction of the blood flow and the resulting vortex that is created, specific parameters that can be evaluated to quantify flow features. As a group, we wanted to determine that value for different frames of the BSI videos that we had taken of the healthy infant hearts to understand what “normal” flow is. To do this, sample BSI data was utilized so that I could create a code that would allow a section of the left ventricle to be chosen by the user to establish the region of interest. Then, I incorporated an equation that would analyze each pixel within the frame of choice starting at the outside border of the region of interest and continuing in. Through trial and error, lines of the code were created one by one. The process of establishing the code was not fast, but after many meetings with the group, and extensive individual research, the code provided the necessary output. This progress was essential in moving towards establishing standard values for future comparison to diseased cases.
In the final months of the semester, trips to Little Rock, Arkansas were made by Megan Laughlin to obtain additional patient data from a machine with BSI capabilities that were located at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. These trips were necessary to obtain the data, however, were not feasible for the long-term goals of the project because of the time it would take to obtain all the data we would need. This led to my mentor, Dr. Jensen, to help initiate the addition of a machine with BSI to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Springdale, Arkansas.
In my final semester at the University of Arkansas, I plan to begin taking data from additional patients with structurally normal hearts and analyzing it with our code to determine preliminary values for parameters that we have chosen to utilize. After data analysis, I plan to write an honors thesis on this project. Additionally, I plan to help in the transition of all the information I have obtained to the new group members that will take over this project once I graduate. This project will be ongoing, but I anticipate that the standardized values will be determined soon to develop a quicker diagnosis of CHD in infants. Once I graduate, I plan to pursue a career in medicine relating to the cardiovascular system. I believe that my background in Biomedical Engineering and cardiovascular research has given me the opportunity to see the human body, specifically the heart, in a different way. Through the support of the Honors College Grant, I was able to comfortably complete my research and gain this crucial experience. I hope that this new perspective will not only advance my skills as a medical student but also continue to motivate me to be the best physician that I can be.