Introduction to bone haemodynamics

Abstract

Haemodynamics may be defined as the study of the physical characteristics of blood in circulation. It is only since the late 1960s that statements of more than qualitative value have become possible regarding the osseous circulation, and a plethora of techniques and studies since then have confirmed a sustained interest in this important subject. The principal relationships between such factors as driving and transmural pressures, flow rate, viscosity and tube dimensions which apply to any circulation, blood vascular or otherwise, have been seen to be relevant to the circulation in bone tissue. The evidence bearing directly on haemodynamics in bone, therefore, is considerably amplified in scope and meaning if, in assessing it, reliability is placed on fundamental generalities found to obtain in the circulation of other tissues.