Evaluation of Compliance of Arterial Vessel Using Coupled Fluid Structure Interaction Analysis

Abstract

The in vivo and ex vivo compliance of arteries are expected to be closely related and estimated. Fluid-structure interaction analysis can assess the agreement between the two compli- ances. To evaluate this hypothesis, a pulsatile fluid-structure interaction analysis of blood flow in femoral artery of a dog was conducted using: (1) measured invivo mean pressure (72.5 mmHg), mean pressure drop (0.59 mmHg), mean velocity (15.1 cm/sec); and (2) ex vivo measurements of non - linear elastic properties of femoral artery. Additional analyses were conducted for physio- logical pressures (104.1 and 140.7 mmHg) and blood flow using a characteristic linear pressure - flow relationship. The computed compliance decreased from 0.198% diameter change/mmHg at 72.5 mmHg to 0.145% diameter change/mmHg at 140.7 mmHg. The computed compliance tends to match well with in vivo compliance of femoral artery at lower pressure but is overestimated at higher pressure. This suggests an alteration in the compliance of the artery during ex vivo elasticity measurements.