Arterial wall viscoelasticity and cardiovascular networks

本项目开发心血管系统的数学和计算模型，在单个血管段和血管网络的尺度上将血流动力学与血管壁粘弹性耦合起来。通过与乌拉圭蒙得维的亚共和国大学的实验人员合作，该项目设计集成了新颖的数学建模、新的软组织粘弹性数值技术以及广泛的数据分析。单个血管段和多血管网络的模型将与采用参数估计和灵敏度分析技术的实验数据的系统分析相协调。这项研究的高度整合和跨学科性质将产生结果，可以为血管网络中的心血管动力学建模带来新的标准。特别是，动脉壁粘弹性的重要性将根据血管的位置和类型，物种（羊，人）和实验条件（体内，离体）进行分析。此外，疾病的影响将模拟与临床相关的变量的重点。本项目开发的模型将有助于准确预测心血管网络中血流、血压和血管横截面积的波形。该项目开发了一种新颖的、综合的方法来分析心血管动力学，包括单个血管和血管网络，通过协调数学和计算建模，以系统和全面的方法来分析实验数据。目前的方法依赖于忽视单个血管壁变形中的能量损失（粘弹性）的模型，或者没有考虑对血压、血流和心血管血管网络中血管横截面积的下游影响的模型。本项目开发的模型将在实验合作者的协调下进行评估、校准和完善，以便分析来自不同实验条件、不同物种（羊、人）和不同健康状态（健康vs.高血压）的数据。该项目的技术和成果有可能为心血管血流建模设定一个新标准，也可应用于研究显著影响心血管健康的其他疾病（如糖尿病）的影响。在这个项目中开发的血管网络模型有潜力为临床医生提供一个血压波形参考库，可以纳入医疗模拟器和数据库，用于心血管医学的诊断应用。

This project develops mathematical and computational models of the cardiovascular system that couple dynamics of blood flow to vessel wall viscoelasticity at the scale of individual vessel segments and vessel networks. The project design integrates novel mathematical modeling, new numerical techniques for soft tissue viscoelasticity, and extensive data analysis via collaboration with experimentalists at the Republic University, Montevideo, Uruguay. Models of both individual vessel segments and networks of multiple vessels will be developed in coordination with a systematic analysis of experimental data that employs parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis techniques. The highly integrative and interdisciplinary nature of this study will yield outcomes that can lead to new standards for modeling cardiovascular dynamics in vessel networks. In particular, the importance of arterial wall viscoelasticity will be analyzed according to vessel location and type, species (sheep, humans) and experimental conditions (in-vivo, ex-vivo). In addition, effects of disease will be simulated with an emphasis on variables of clinical relevance. The models developed in this project will facilitate accurate prediction of waveforms for blood flow, blood pressure, and vessel cross-sectional area in cardiovascular networks.This project develops a novel, integrative approach to analyzing cardiovascular dynamics both in single vessels as well as vessel networks by coordinating mathematical and computational modeling with a systematic and comprehensive approach to analysis of experimental data. Present approaches rely on models that neglect energy loss (viscoelasticity) in the deformation of individual vessel walls, or models that do not consider downstream effects on blood pressure, blood flow, and vessel cross-sectional area in cardiovascular networks of blood vessels. The models developed in this project will be assessed, calibrated and refined in coordination with experimental collaborators allowing analysis of data from varying experimental conditions, different species (sheep, human), and in different states of health (healthy vs. hypertensives). The techniques and outcomes of this project have the potential for setting a new standard in modeling cardiovascular blood flow and can also be applied to study effects of other diseases (e.g., diabetes) that significantly affect cardiovascular health. The models of vessel networks developed in this project have the potential to provide clinicians with a reference library of blood pressure waveforms that can be incorporated into medical simulators and databases for diagnostic applications in cardiovascular medicine.