Contact

  • Academic
    ndorn@stanford.edu
    University - Student Department: Chemical Engineering Position: Graduate

All Publications

  • SDFStent: Real-time interactive virtual stenting via SDF deformation fields. Computer methods and programs in biomedicine Li, B. J., Dorn, N. C., Lasso, A., Jolley, M. A., Feinstein, J. A., James, D. L., Marsden, A. L. 2026; 287: 109645

    Abstract

    Stenting is among the most common transcatheter interventions for congenital heart disease (CHD). Patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations can predict hemodynamic outcomes of intervention scenarios but require post-operative vascular geometries that reflect stent-induced shape changes, which existing tools either model inadequately or require extensive time or manual effort to generate. We present SDFStent, a signed distance function (SDF) based mesh deformation method for virtual stenting that operates in real time, maintains mesh integrity, and preserves junction geometry.The stent is modeled as a pipe surface composed of piecewise-capsule SDFs joined by a smooth-minimum operator. Mesh vertices near the expanding SDF surface are displaced along the SDF gradient with a compactly supported fall-off function and an alpha blending mask. SDFStent was benchmarked against three existing approaches and validated on a proof-of-concept cohort of three tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) and three coarctation of the aorta (CoA) patients using rigid-wall steady-state CFD simulations against clinical catheterization measurements.Against a prescribed diameter of 6.0 mm, the method produced a mean stented diameter of 5.92 ± 0.08 mm in 1.5 s, over 100× faster than the best stenting-specific comparator. All output meshes were watertight and self-intersection-free. CFD-simulated post-operative pressure drops agreed with clinical measurements within 4 mmHg (mean error 2 mmHg).SDFStent produces simulation-ready post-stent models that match prescribed stent dimensions at interactive speeds, from pre-operative anatomy and catheterization data alone. The implementation is open-source and available in 3D Slicer. Its scriptable architecture enables automated generation of large synthetic cohorts for data-driven surrogate modeling.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cmpb.2026.109645

    View details for PubMedID 42777594

  • svZeroDSolver: A modular package for lumped-parameter cardiovascular simulations. Journal of open source software Menon, K., Richter, J., Pfaller, M. R., Pham, J., Mathew, E. M., Harold, K. E., Dorn, N. C., Verma, A., Marsden, A. L. 2025; 10 (109)

    Abstract

    Computational modeling of cardiovascular blood flow has emerged as a valuable tool in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease (Menon, Hu, et al., 2024). While simulations of blood flow can be performed using high and low-fidelity techniques, lumped-parameter or zero-dimensional modeling is a widely used low-order technique in applications which require quick estimation of bulk flow quantities, such as flow and pressure at specific anatomical locations (Pfaller et al., 2024).

    View details for DOI 10.21105/joss.07595

    View details for PubMedID 42078005

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC13132497