Giulia Monopoli defended her thesis

The defence took place at  Auditorium 3, Domus Juridica (UiO), Kristian Augusts Gate 17. 

Main Research Findings

Heart valve disease affects millions of people worldwide and represents a growing burden on public health. Among its many forms, certain conditions involving the mitral valve — one of four valves that regulate blood flow through the heart — can lead to dangerous irregular heartbeats and sudden cardiac death. Identifying which patients are at risk remains one of the key challenges in cardiology today, as current clinical tools lack the precision needed for reliable risk assessment.

This thesis addresses that challenge by developing and applying computational tools that combine machine learning and computer simulation to better understand mitral valve disease. First, a machine learning tool called DeepValve was developed to automatically detect the mitral valve structure from cardiac MRI scans. Building on this, statistical shape analysis of the heart revealed that specific geometric deformations of the left ventricle are significantly associated with arrhythmic events, suggesting a novel shape-based marker for risk. Computer simulations further demonstrated that mechanical stretching of muscle tissue can trigger sustained dangerous heart rhythms, particularly in the presence of scarring. Finally, patients with mitral valve disease were shown to exhibit a distinct and abnormal curling motion of the heart wall, now quantified for the first time across imaging modalities.

Together, these advances move the field closer to a more complete and quantitative picture of mitral valve disease. 

Prior to the defence, at 10:15, Giulia presented her trial lecture "The ethics of the use of AI in clinical decision support tools: The role of explainability, uncertainty quantification, and algorithmic fairness in building the right tools in the right way" at Auditorium 2 in the same building (Domus Juridica, Kristian Augusts Gate 17). 

Adjudication committee

• Professor Vicente Grau, Oxford University
• Senior Product Manager Kristin McLeod, Microsoft Research
• Professor Mikael Mortensen, University of Oslo

Supervisors

• Professor Mary Margot Maleckar, Simula Research laboratory
• Dr. Nickolas Forsch, Simula Research laboratory
• Professor Gabriel Balaaban, Kristiania University College
• Professor Kent-André Mardal, University of Oslo

Read more at the UiO Department of Mathematics webpage.