Effect of myocardial fibre architecture on the behaviour of the human left ventricle in diastole.

Stress and deformation results from finite element analyses are presented for a series of models of the human left ventricle. The myocardium has a complex anisotropic fibre structure, are made on both fibre orientation and on the ratio are made on both fibre orientation and on the ratio of the elastic moduli along and across the fibres. The results show that, at least in diastole, when the left ventricle is considered as a passive structure under the action of the internal blood pressure, the effect of the real fibre arrangement is generally to reduce deformation and also the direct stresses. In spite of fibre angle changing across the wall, the analyses correctly predict the lack of rotation of the left ventricle about the long axis.