Coupled agent‐based and hyperelastic modelling of the left ventricle post‐myocardial infarction

Understanding the healing and remodelling processes induced by myocardial infarction (MI) of the heart is important, and the mechanical properties of the myocardium post‐MI can be indicative for effective treatments aimed at avoiding eventual heart failure. MI remodelling is a multiscale feedback process between the mechanical loading and cellular adaptation. In this paper, we use an agent‐based model to describe collagen remodelling by fibroblasts regulated by chemical and mechanical cues after acute MI, and upscale into a finite element 3D left ventricular model. We model the dispersed collagen fibre structure using the angular integration method and have incorporated a collagen fibre tension‐compression switch in the left ventricle (LV) model. This enables us to study the scar healing (collagen deposition, degradation, and reorientation) of a rat heart post‐MI. Our results, in terms of collagen accumulation and alignment, compare well with published experimental data. In addition, we show that different shapes of the MI region can affect the collagen remodelling, and in particular, the mechanical cue plays an important role in the healing process.