Computational Health

Mesh4D is a motion-aware deep generative model for reconstructing high-resolution, temporally smooth 3D+t cardiac meshes directly from multi-view cardiac MRI. The method integrates a multi-view cross-attention encoder, transformer-based variational latent dynamics, and a continuous deformation decoder for anatomically consistent and physiologically plausible 4D heart reconstruction.

Published at: MICCAI 2025

Cardiac trabeculae form a network of muscular strands that line the inner surfaces of the heart. Their development depends on multiscale morphogenetic processes and, while highly conserved across vertebrate evolution, their role in the pathophysiology of the mature heart is not fully understood. Here we report variant associations across the allele frequency spectrum for trabecular morphology in 47,803 participants of the UK Biobank using fractal dimension analysis of cardiac imaging. We identified an association between trabeculation and rare variants in 56 genes that regulate myocardial contractility and ventricular development. Genome-wide association studies identified 68 loci in pathways that regulate sarcomeric function, differentiation of the conduction system and cell fate determination. We found that trabeculation-associated variants were modifiers of cardiomyopathy phenotypes with opposing effects in hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy. Together, these data provide insights into mechanisms that regulate trabecular development and plasticity, and identify a potential role in modifying monogenic disease expression.

Published at: Nature Cardiovascular Research, 2024