Cardiovascular diseases: New computer model improves therapy

Using mathematical image processing, scientists at the BioTechMed-Graz research cooperation have found a way to create digital twins from human hearts. The method opens up completely new possibilities in clinical diagnostics. Although treatment options are constantly improving, cardiovascular diseases are still one of the most frequent causes of death in Europe. The success of the treatment varies from patient to patient and depends on the individual clinical picture, as Gernot Plank, researcher at the Institute of Biophysics at the Medical University of Graz explains using an example: "For example, pacemaker therapy is not successful in about 30 per cent of cardiac patients who have had a pacemaker implanted for mechanical resynchronization of the heartbeat." In order to be able to rule out such interventions in advance, Plank has developed a computer model together with the mathematicians Gundolf Haase and Kristian Bredies from the University of Graz and computer scientist Thomas Pock from the Institute of Computer Vision and Representation at Graz University of Technology, respectively, with which doctors can pre-simulate the optimal therapy and dramatically improve the success of treatment.