Aortic stenosis (AS) is a heart disease characterized by the narrowing of the aortic valve, restricting the blood flow from the left ventricle. Without timely intervention, severe AS can lead to life-threatening complications. Aortic valve replacement (AVR) is the primary treatment of AS, replacing the diseased valve with a mechanical or biological prosthesis to restore normal blood flow and improve the heart function.

AVR is associated with ventricular remodeling which includes a reduction in cardiac mass and an increase in extracellular volume (ECV). Both aspects of the remodeling process can be studied by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), with ECV being recognized as a marker of cardiac fibrosis and a predictor of mortality in AS patients.

We developed personalized computational models of the human ventricles using MRI data of 12 AS patients before and 3 months after AVR. Using these models, we provide new insights into the remodeling process that follows AVR. We demonstrate that an ECV increase does not have to be associated with changes in cardiac fibrosis, and that the remodeling process does not affect conduction velocity, an important parameter in cardiac electrophysiology.