Structural Identifiability Analysis of a Cardiovascular System Model

A simple experimentally validated cardiovascular system model has been shown to be able to track the evolution of various diseases. The model has previously been made patient-specific by adjustment of its parameters on the basis of a minimal set of hemodynamic measurements. However, this model has not yet been shown to be structurally identifiable, which means that the adjusted model parameters may not be unique. The model equations were manipulated to show that, from a theoretical point of view, all of their parameters can be exactly retrieved from a restricted set of model outputs. However, this set of model outputs is still too large for a clinical application, because it includes left and right ventricular pressures. Consequently, further hypotheses that determine some model parameter values have to be made for the model to be clinically applicable.