OpenModelica-based virtual simulator for the cardiovascular and respiratory physiology of a neonate

Abstract

There is a lack of medical simulation tools that can be understood and used, at the same time, by researchers, teachers, clinicians and students. Regarding this issue, in this work we report a virtual simulator (developed in OpenModelica) that allow to experiment with the fundamental variables of the cardiovascular and respiratory system of a neonate. We extended a long-tested lumped parameter model that represents the cardiovascular and respiratory physiology of a neonate. From this model, we implemented a physiological simulator using Modelica. The fidelity and versatility of the reported simulator were evaluated by simulating seven physiological scenarios: two of them representing a healthy infant (newborn and 6-months old) and five representing newborns affected by different heart diseases. The simulator properly and consistently represented the quantitative and qualitative behaviour of the seven physiological scenarios when compared with existing clinical data. Results allow us to consider the simulator reported here as a reliable tool for researching, training and learning. The advanced modelling features of Modelica and the friendly graphical user interface of OpenModelica make the simulator suitable to be used by a broad community of users. Furthermore, it can be easily extended to simulate many clinical scenarios.

Keywords:

• Cardiovascular system
• simulation
• respiratory system
• heart diseases
• neonate

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciated all the collaboration received from students and professors of the Faculties of Medicine and Engineering at the National University of Colombia. The authors also thank to the DIB of National University of Colombia for financial support in this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Disclaimers

The opinions expressed in the article presented are their own and not an official position of an institution.

Notes

1 Minimum volume of blood needed to fill the vascular bed until a force is exerted on the walls of the vessel.