Babies born with congenital heart diseases, such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome, tricuspid atresia, or tetralogy of Fallot, will require one or more surgeries during the first few years of life to correct these conditions and create functioning cardiovascular systems. However, these surgeries are typically palliative, meaning that while they correct the initial problem, these patients will develop additional problems as they age. Mathematical models can be used to study the physiology of congenital heart diseases, propose changes to the initial surgery to improve long-term outcomes, improve diagnosis and management of problems in these patients, and develop medical devices for their treatment.

Our lab studies surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot, as well as adult patients who were born with a single functioning heart ventricle, who have failing “Fontan” circulations. In this talk, I will describe how we use mathematical and computational models, in combination with clinical data and experimental flow studies, to improve our understanding of these two conditions and develop methods for surgical planning, patient management, and medical device design.