Proportional Relations Between Systolic, Diastolic and Mean Pulmonary Artery Pressure are Explained by Vascular Properties

Recently, it was shown that proportional relationships exist between systolic, diastolic and mean pulmonary artery pressure (Psys, Pdia and Pmean) and that they are maintained under various conditions in both health and disease. An arterial-ventricular interaction model was used to study the contribution of model parameters to the ratios Psys/Pmean, and Pdia/Pmean. The heart was modeled by a time-varying elastance function, and the arterial system by a three-element windkessel model consisting of peripheral resistance, Rp, arterial compliance Ca, and pulmonary artery characteristic impedance Z0. Baseline model parameters were estimated in control subjects and compared to values estimated in patients with pulmonary hypertension. Results indicate that experimentally derived ratios Psys/Pmean and Pdia/Pmean could be accurately reproduced using our model (1.59 and 0.61 vs. 1.55 and 0.64, respectively). Sensitivity analysis showed that the (empirical) constancy of Psys/Pmean and Pdia/Pmean was primarily based on the inverse hyperbolic relation between total vascular resistance (RT; calculated as Rp + Z0) and Ca, (i.e. constant RTCa product). Of the cardiac parameters, only heart rate affected the pressure ratios, but the contribution was small. Therefore, we conclude that proportional relations between systolic, diastolic and mean pulmonary artery pressure result from the constancy of RTCa thus from pulmonary arterial properties, with only little influence of heart rate

Effective-Range Expansion of the Neutron-Deuteron Scattering Studied by a Quark-Model Nonlocal Gaussian Potential

The S-wave effective range parameters of the neutron-deuteron (nd) scattering are derived in the Faddeev formalism, using a nonlocal Gaussian potential based on the quark-model baryon-baryon interaction fss2. The spin-doublet low-energy eigenphase shift is sufficiently attractive to reproduce predictions by the AV18 plus Urbana three-nucleon force, yielding the observed value of the doublet scattering length and the correct differential cross sections below the deuteron breakup threshold. This conclusion is consistent with the previous result for the triton binding energy, which is nearly reproduced by fss2 without reinforcing it with the three-nucleon force.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures and 6 tables, submitted to Prog. Theor. Phy

Numerical simulation of blood flow and pressure drop in the pulmonary arterial and venous circulation

A novel multiscale mathematical and computational model of the pulmonary circulation is presented and used to analyse both arterial and venous pressure and flow. This work is a major advance over previous studies by Olufsen et al. (Ann Biomed Eng 28:1281–1299, 2012) which only considered the arterial circulation. For the first three generations of vessels within the pulmonary circulation, geometry is specified from patient-specific measurements obtained using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Blood flow and pressure in the larger arteries and veins are predicted using a nonlinear, cross-sectional-area-averaged system of equations for a Newtonian fluid in an elastic tube. Inflow into the main pulmonary artery is obtained from MRI measurements, while pressure entering the left atrium from the main pulmonary vein is kept constant at the normal mean value of 2 mmHg. Each terminal vessel in the network of ‘large’ arteries is connected to its corresponding terminal vein via a network of vessels representing the vascular bed of smaller arteries and veins. We develop and implement an algorithm to calculate the admittance of each vascular bed, using bifurcating structured trees and recursion. The structured-tree models take into account the geometry and material properties of the ‘smaller’ arteries and veins of radii ≥ 50 μ m. We study the effects on flow and pressure associated with three classes of pulmonary hypertension expressed via stiffening of larger and smaller vessels, and vascular rarefaction. The results of simulating these pathological conditions are in agreement with clinical observations, showing that the model has potential for assisting with diagnosis and treatment for circulatory diseases within the lung

Fluid-structure interaction in abdominal aortic aneurysms: effects of asymmetry and wall thickness

BACKGROUND: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a prevalent disease which is of significant concern because of the morbidity associated with the continuing expansion of the abdominal aorta and its ultimate rupture. The transient interaction between blood flow and the wall contributes to wall stress which, if it exceeds the failure strength of the dilated arterial wall, will lead to aneurysm rupture. Utilizing a computational approach, the biomechanical environment of virtual AAAs can be evaluated to study the affects of asymmetry and wall thickness on this stress, two parameters that contribute to increased risk of aneurysm rupture. METHODS: Ten virtual aneurysm models were created with five different asymmetry parameters ranging from β = 0.2 to 1.0 and either a uniform or variable wall thickness to study the flow and wall dynamics by means of fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analyses. The AAA wall was designed to have a (i) uniform 1.5 mm thickness or (ii) variable thickness ranging from 0.5 – 1.5 mm extruded normally from the boundary surface of the lumen. These models were meshed with linear hexahedral elements, imported into a commercial finite element code and analyzed under transient flow conditions. The method proposed was then compared with traditional computational solid stress techniques on the basis of peak wall stress predictions and cost of computational effort. RESULTS: The results provide quantitative predictions of flow patterns and wall mechanics as well as the effects of aneurysm asymmetry and wall thickness heterogeneity on the estimation of peak wall stress. These parameters affect the magnitude and distribution of Von Mises stresses; varying wall thickness increases the maximum Von Mises stress by 4 times its uniform thickness counterpart. A pre-peak systole retrograde flow was observed in the AAA sac for all models, which is due to the elastic energy stored in the compliant arterial wall and the expansion force of the artery during systole. CONCLUSION: Both wall thickness and geometry asymmetry affect the stress exhibited by a virtual AAA. Our results suggest that an asymmetric AAA with regional variations in wall thickness would be exposed to higher mechanical stresses and an increased risk of rupture than a more fusiform AAA with uniform wall thickness. Therefore, it is important to accurately reproduce vessel geometry and wall thickness in computational predictions of AAA biomechanics

A comparison of echocardiography to invasive measurement in the evaluation of pulmonary arterial hypertension in a rat model

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a life-threatening condition characterized by progressive elevation in pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and total pulmonary vascular resistance (TPVR). Recent advances in imaging techniques have allowed the development of new echocardiographic parameters to evaluate disease progression. However, there are no reports comparing the diagnostic performance of these non-invasive parameters to each other and to invasive measurements. Therefore, we investigated the diagnostic yield of echocardiographically derived TPVR and Doppler parameters of PAP in screening and measuring the severity of PAH in a rat model. Serial echocardiographic and invasive measurements were performed at baseline, 21 and 35 days after monocrotaline-induction of PAH. The most challenging echocardiographic derived TPVR measurement had good correlation with the invasive measurement (r = 0.92, P < 0.001) but also more simple and novel parameters of TPVR were found to be useful although the non-invasive TPVR measurement was feasible in only 29% of the studies due to lack of sufficient tricuspid valve regurgitation. However, echocardiographic measures of PAP, pulmonary artery flow acceleration time (PAAT) and deceleration (PAD), were measurable in all animals, and correlated with invasive PAP (r = −0.74 and r = 0.75, P < 0.001 for both). Right ventricular thickness and area correlated with invasive PAP (r = 0.59 and r = 0.64, P < 0.001 for both). Observer variability of the invasive and non-invasive parameters was low except in tissue-Doppler derived isovolumetric relaxation time. These non-invasive parameters may be used to replace invasive measurements in detecting successful disease induction and to complement invasive data in the evaluation of PAH severity in a rat model