Pre-eclampsia

In pregnancy, modifications of the utero-ovarian arterial network cause a significant increase in blood volume distributed to the placenta and foetus. In pre-eclampsia, these modifications of the utero-ovarian arterial network are compromised, which results in a reduced perfusion of the placenta with corresponding negative implications for the foetus. An improved mechanistic understanding and the identification of new cardiovascular-based biomarkers would help stratify treatment of these patients.

Computational network models have been developed of the cardiovascular system that include all the large blood vessels in the arterial and venous system. The closed loop approach links these systems using windkessel models (electric circuit-type models) to represent the peripheral beds and a 4-chamber lumped heart model that connects to the systemic and pulmonary circulation. Personalisation of these models are created through optimisation of clinically obtained non-invasive measurements, which allows for a patient-specific approach in the analysis.

Two projects are currently funded through Welcome Leap (2022-2025). The first focuses on the creation of large clinical databases with doppler waveforms in conjunction with physiologically realistic synthetic databases using the models. The second is around building a digital twin of the pregnant patient in combination with wearables. This work is conducted by Dale Kernot and Yannis Polydoros.