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Simulations of pulsatile blood flow in tapered S-shaped in-plane and out-of-plane coronary arteries

Year: 2009
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: : Ischaemic heart disease has been the leading cause of death in Australia for the past 10 years. Included in this category are angina, blocked arteries and heart attacks. This paper presents a modelling study of the precur-sors to artery blockage, namely coronary artery disease, or narrowing of the coronary arteries, based on geometrical considerations. It is believed that wall shear stress is a key initiating factor in coronary artery disease, especially low wall shear stress. Wall shear stress is caused by the blood flowing along the walls of the artery and in regions of low wall shear stress the flow is relatively slow compared to that in other parts of the artery. In these slow flow regions, there is enhanced opportunity for molecules carried in the blood (for example low density lipoprotiens (LDL)) to diffuse out of the blood and into the artery wall. Long term exposure to this diffusive process results in thickening of the artery wall and, hence, narrowing of the available area for blood flow within the artery. Of major concern are regions of the coronary arteries which demonstrate consistently low wall shear stress over the cardiac cycle. The complex flow patterns observed in coronary arteries are believed to be related to the pulsatile nature of the flow, the rheological properties of the blood and the geometry of the arteries, including branching, bifurcation and curvature. Possible factors that may cause differences in the coronaries compared with other arteries in the body are the particular character of the coronary inlet velocity waveform and the fact that coronary velocities are lower than most of the other
Institution: Griffith University
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W109776677
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Cites: 21
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Related to: 10