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Predictive Models for Pulmonary Artery Size in Fontan Patients

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Abstract

We developed models of pulmonary artery (PA) size in Fontan patients as a function of age and body surface area (BSA) using linear regression and breakpoint analyses based on data from 43 Fontan patients divided into two groups: the extracardiac conduit (ECC) group (n = 24) and the non-ECC group (n = 19). Model predictions were compared against those of a non-Fontan control group (n = 18) and published literature. We observed strong positive correlations of the mean PA diameter with BSA (r = 0.9, p < 0.05) and age (r = 0.88, p < 0.05) in the ECC group. The absolute percentage differences between our BSA and age model predictions against published literature were less than 16% and 20%, respectively. Predicted PA size for Fontan patients was consistently smaller than the control group. These models may serve as useful references for clinicians and be utilized to construct 3D anatomic models that correspond to patient body size or age.

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Abbreviations

3D:

Three-dimensional

BSA:

Body surface area

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

ECC:

Extracardiac conduit

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

PA:

Pulmonary arteries

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University for their support.

Funding

This work was supported by an Award from the American Heart Association, The Children’s Heart Foundation, and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University. J.P. Mynard is supported by a co-funded Career Development Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and a Future Leader Fellowship from the National Heart Foundation. The Heart Research group at MCRI (J.P. Mynard) is supported by the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program, Big W, and RCH1000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634-0921, USA

    Akash Gupta & Ethan Kung

  2. Department of Cardiology, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Chris Gillett, Michael M. H. Cheung & Jonathan P. Mynard

  3. School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

    Patrick Gerard

  4. Heart Research, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Michael M. H. Cheung & Jonathan P. Mynard

  5. Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Michael M. H. Cheung & Jonathan P. Mynard

  6. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Jonathan P. Mynard

  7. Department of Bioengineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

    Ethan Kung

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Contributions

A. Gupta contributed to the conception of this work, performed the statistical analyses and interpretation of the data, and drafted the manuscript. C. Gillett acquired data and revised the work critically for important intellectual content. P. Gerard contributed to the design of the study and performed critical revision for intellectual content. M.M.H. Cheung contributed to data acquisition and performed critical revision for intellectual content. J.P. Mynard contributed to the design of the study and performed critical revision for intellectual content. E. Kung contributed to the conception and design of the study and performed critical revision for intellectual content. All authors have approved the submitted version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ethan Kung.

Ethics declarations

The funding agencies/sponsors had no involvement in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human Subjects/Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was not necessary as the data did not contain any identifying information.

Institutional Review Board Approval

The Human Research Ethics Committee of the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne approved the retrospective use of data for this study (Ref. No: 37205A).

Animal Studies

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Associate Editor Ana Barac oversaw the review of this article

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Gupta, A., Gillett, C., Gerard, P. et al. Predictive Models for Pulmonary Artery Size in Fontan Patients. J. of Cardiovasc. Trans. Res. 14, 782–789 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-020-09993-4

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