DISTRIBUTION OF BLOOD COMPONENTS ALONG THE CROSS-SECTION OF THE VASCULAR DEPENDING ON THE CONCENTRATION OF ERYTHROCYTES

Abstract

The dependence of the stationary distribution of blood components over the cross section of the cylindrical Poiseuille flow on the content of erythrocytes is described by the method of numerical simulation. A thermodynamic approach was used, in which dispersed phases are represented by a set of cellular components (erythrocytes, leukocytes, platelets), and blood plasma is considered as a low molecular weight dispersion medium. The simulation is based on the search for the minimum of the total energy of the system, including the chemical potentials and kinetic energy of all components. This state corresponds to the only solution describing the consistent distributions of all components of the multiphase flow over the section. Distributions of components were simulated, in which the content of leukocytes and platelets corresponds to the normal, for cases of normal, pathologically low (erythropenia) and high (erythrocytosis) content of erythrocytes. As an example, the Poiseuille flow in a vessel 1 mm in diameter with a shear rate of 10 s -1 is considered. According to the simulation results, the deviation of the number of erythrocytes from the norm leads to redistribution over the cross section of the flow of other components (leukocytes and platelets). The concentration of platelets and leukocytes has maximum values in the vicinity of the vessel walls with a low number of erythrocytes. When the number of red blood cells increases, maxima concentration of platelets and white blood cells are shifted to the center of the vessel and the proportion of red blood cells near the vessel walls increases