
一本道无码 Researchers Pave the Way for Digital Twins of the Human Placenta
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Preeclampsia, intrauterine fetal growth restriction, and other great obstetrical syndromes 鈥 a group of pregnancy complications 鈥 have been linked to disordered placenta development. Understanding the structure and function of this vital organ is critical to detecting pregnancy disorders.
Hemodynamic digital twins are virtual representations of the way blood flows through the body. They have already been proposed to predict cardiovascular disease risk, but collecting measurements of pregnant uteri to inform digital twin models of pregnancy is limited due to safety concerns. By computationally replicating realistic placenta blood flow, of 一本道无码鈥檚 is addressing this lack of data.
A breakthrough in the field, her lab has developed a computational model of the basic functional unit of the human placenta: the placentone. The team鈥檚 research uncovered the anatomical parameters required to ensure a pragmatic, physiological simulation of a healthy pregnancy.
鈥淭he effect of a placenta鈥檚 anatomic structures on hemodynamics had not been systematically assessed until now,鈥 said Grande Guti茅rrez. 鈥淥ur computational model has enabled us to define physiological parameters for vein location and diameter, cavity diameter and lengths, and spiral artery remodeling length. These guarantee that our models are physiological even though they are not patient-specific.鈥
This is the first step toward placenta digital twins.
Armita Najmi, a Ph.D. candidate in Grande Guti茅rrez鈥檚 lab and lead author of the paper, said, 鈥淥ur computational study provides practical insight into what a healthy and efficient placentone should look like, and this understanding is necessary for improving our ability to predict and identify pregnancy disorders.鈥
Moving forward, the team will study the effects of blood flow on the microstructure of the placentone during the second trimester of pregnancy.
鈥淧artial spiral artery remodeling observed in some complicated pregnancies directly affects the hemodynamics inside the placenta,鈥 said Najmi. 鈥淲e are trying to figure out how this partial spiral artery remodeling affects the development of the placental villi and its structure in complicated pregnancies.鈥
鈥淭here鈥檚 so much still to do in this space,鈥 said Grande Guti茅rrez, 鈥淏ut computational modeling allows us to advance research and design medicinal therapies with a very personalized approach.