Cardiovascular biomechanics
Cardiovascular biomechanics represents the study of the mechanical properties of the cardiovascular system and its interaction with the biological and mechanical environment. This is often related to the functions of the human body in order to better understand its physiology and pathology to improve patient care.[1]
The human cardiovascular system is organized into two subsystems: systemic and pulmonary circulation. The pulmonary circulation allows blood oxygenation from the lungs. The systemic circulation transports blood to the full body.
Vascular biomechanics
The main topic of vascular biomechanics is the description of the mechanical behaviour of vascular tissues. The vascular system in the human body is supposed to maintain blood pressure and allow for blood flow and chemical exchange.
Vascular tissues are inhomogeneous with a strongly nonlinear behaviour. The study of such systems involves complex geometry with intricate load conditions and material properties.[2] The correct description of these mechanisms is based on the study of physiology and biological interaction. Therefore it is necessary to study wall mechanics and hemodynamics with their interaction. The vascular wall is a dynamic structure in continuous evolution in response to chemical and mechanical factors like Wall Shear Stress or biochemical signaling.
Vessel structure
Vessels can be grouped into several structures as:
- Arteries: large vessels with the diameter of 1 to 30mm. They carry blood away from the heart. Arteries are really elastic tissues constituted of muscular and elastin/collagen, into three different layers.
- Arterioles: with a diameter of 10 to 100μm. The vascular wall becomes thicker.
- Capillaries: they allow for substance exchange between the vascular system and cells. With a diameter of 4 to 40μm they are the smallest vessels in the human body.
- Venules: with a diameter of 10 to 200μm are thinner than arterioles without the medial layer.
- Veins: diameter of 1 to 25mm, return the blood to the heart.
The most interesting, from a biomechanical point of view, are the arteries. With their thicker and elastic wall they give the vascular system a lot of elasticity to convert the pulsatile cardiac output to a progressive less swinging pressure that becomes constant in the capillaries. [3]
Arteries
Arteries are constituted of three layers: intima, media and adventitia.
Ex vivo testing
It is almost impossible to test in-vivo biomechanical properties and a lot of tests are conducted ex vivo. The most common experimental measures are the uniaxial tensile test, the biaxial tensile test and the bulge inflation test.
Computational model
A lot of computational models have been developed.
Most models require a description in finite deformation by accounting for a hyperelastic constitutive model. This is necessary to account for the large deformations to which the vascular system is subjected due to the pressure variation.
Additional models have recently been developed to account for tissue growth and fracture risk.
Cardiac biomechanics
References
- ↑ Zhiyong, Li (2022). "Editorial: Computational Biomechanics of the Heart and Vasculature With Potential Clinical and Surgical Applications". Frontiers in Physiology. 13: 872774: 872774. doi:10.3389/fphys.2022.872774. PMC 9022173 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 35464095 Check|pmid=value (help). - ↑ Gasser, Christian (2021). Vascular Biomechanics: Concepts, Models, and Applications. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-70966-2. ISBN 978-3-030-70965-5. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) Search this book on
- ↑ Hoskins, Peter R; Lawford, Patricia V; Doyle, Barry J, eds. (2017). Cardiovascular Biomechanics. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-46407-7. ISBN 978-3-319-46405-3. Search this book on
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