Wall Shear in a Compliant Cast of a Human Artery Perfused With a Non-Newtonian Fluid, and Its Correlation With Intimal Thickness

Abstract

There is indirect evidence that fluid dynamics plays a role in atherogenesis, presumably reflecting the response of the vessel wall to the adjacent flow field. To illuminate this response, we seek relationships between fluid mechanical variables in the arterial flow and the morphology at corresponding sites in the arterial wall. The primary morphologic variable used to date has been intimal thickness. To obtain near-wall fluid dynamic data of sufficient resolution, we prepare replicas of human vascular segments, perfuse them with physiologically realistic flows, and measure fluid velocities at multiple sites near the walls of these casts by laser Doppler anemometry (LDA).