Chapter 17

Pulse Wave Propagation in Large Blood Vessels Based on Fluid- Solid Interactions Methods

Tomohiro Fukui, Kim H. Parker and Takami Yamaguchi

Abstract

Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) is recognized by clinicians as an index of mechanical properties of human blood vessels. This concept is based on the Moens- Korteweg equation, which describes the PWV in ideal elastic tubes. However, measured PWV of real human blood vessels cannot be always interpreted by the Moens-Korteweg equation because this formula is not precisely applicable to living blood vessels. It is important to understand the wave propagation in blood vessels for a more reliable diagnosis of vascular disease. In this study, we modeled uniform arteries in a threedimensional coupled fluid-solid interaction computational scheme, and analyzed the pulse wave propagation. A commercial code (Radioss, Altair Engineering) was used to solve the fluid-solid interactions. We compared the regional PWV values obtained from various computational models with those from the Moens-Korteweg equation, and discuss the accuracy of our computation. The PWV values from the thick-walled artery model are lower than those from the Moens-Korteweg equation. Nevertheless, the differences are less than 7% up to 12 m/s of the PWV, indicating these computational methods for the PWV analysis are accurate enough to evaluate its value quantitatively.

Total Pages: 460-471 (12)

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