Julius Guccione

Associate Professor, Surgery Affiliate, UCB/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering Building 2, Room 101, SFVAMC mailcode: SFVAMC 112D (415) 221-4810 x3730 fax: (415) 750-2181 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it http://cmblab.surgery.ucsf.edu/people/principal-investigators.aspx Membership effective July 2000

Research Interests

Cardiac mechanics, finite element simulations of surgical procedures, mechanical testing of cardiac tissue, MRI tissue tagging, MR diffusion tensor imaging.

Research Summary

Cardiac mechanics can be viewed as the application of mechanical engineering principles to the design and analysis of the diagnosis (e.g., via radiology) or treatment (e.g., via surgery) of cardiac disease. Our research tools include: (1) finite element software developed specifically for the analysis of three-dimensional stress and strain distributions in beating heart chambers composed of anisotropic, incompressible, nonlinear, time-dependent materials that undergo finite (large) elastic deformations; (2) a biaxial stretching apparatus for direct determination of constitutive (stress-strain) relations of such materials; (3) magnetic resonance imaging with myocardial tissue tagging for the non-invasive measurement of both cardiac geometry and myocardial strain distributions in vivo; and (4) magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging for the non-destructive measurement of three-dimensional distributions of myocyte orientation ex vivo. Our long-term goal is to create in a timely manner patient-specific finite element models for the mechanics of diseased hearts that cardiac surgeons could use to predict the global and regional cardiac function that would result following each surgical procedure available.

Selected Publications

Walker JC, Ratcliffe MB, Zhang P, Wallace AW, Hsu EW, Saloner DA, Guccione JM. Magnetic resonance imaging-based finite element stress analysis after linear repair of left ventricular aneurysm. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2008 May;135(5):1094-102, 1102.e1-2.

Wall ST, Walker JC, Healy KE, Ratcliffe MB, Guccione JM. Theoretical impact of the injection of material into the myocardium: a finite element model simulation. Circulation. 2006 Dec 12;114(24):2627-35. Epub 2006 Nov 27.

Guccione JM, Walker JC, Beitler JR, Moonly SM, Zhang P, Guttman MA, Ozturk C, McVeigh ER, Wallace AW, Saloner DA, Ratcliffe MB. The effect of anteroapical aneurysm plication on end-systolic three-dimensional strain in the sheep: a magnetic resonance imaging tagging study. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2006 Mar;131(3):579-586.e3.  

Walker JC, Ratcliffe MB, Zhang P, Wallace AW, Fata B, Hsu EW, Saloner D, Guccione JM. MRI-based finite-element analysis of left ventricular aneurysm. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2005 Aug;289(2):H692-700. Epub 2005 Mar 18.

Walker JC, Guccione JM, Jiang Y, Zhang P, Wallace AW, Hsu EW, Ratcliffe MB. Helical myofiber orientation after myocardial infarction and left ventricular surgical restoration in sheep. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2005 Feb;129(2):382-90. (and cover)