Abstract
Microbots have been considered powerful tools in minimally invasive medicine. In the last few years, the topic has been highly studied by researchers across the globe to further develop the capabilities of microbots in medicine. One of many applications of these devices is performing surgical procedures inside the human circulatory system. It is expected that these microdevices traveling along the microvascular system can remove clots, deliver drugs, or even look for specific cells or regions to diagnose and treat. Although many studies have been published about this subject, the experimental influence of microbot morphology in hemodynamics of specific sites of the human circulatory system is yet to be explored. There are numerical studies already considering some of human physiological conditions, however, experimental validation is vital and demands further investigations. The roles of specific hemodynamic variables, the non-Newtonian behavior of blood and its particulate nature at small scales, the flow disturbances caused by the heart cycle, and the anatomy of certain arteries (i.e., bifurcations and tortuosity of vessels of some regions) in the determination of the dynamic performance of microbots are of paramount importance. This paper presents a critical analysis of the state-of-the-art literature related to pulsatile blood flow around microbots.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide (17.9 million) [1].In Europe, half of all deaths are from CVDs [2]
Microbots are microelectromechanical devices (MEMs) or small devices made of multifunctional smart materials, structures, and mechanisms that can navigate controllably by means of an untethered manipulation system and have access to small and constrained locations or workspaces to perform simple tasks, such as pushing or carrying a cargo [4,5]
Other methodologies concerning numerical methods such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have been used to analyze flow behavior regarding hemodynamic analysis in blood vessels to better understand the development of CVDs [8,9,10]
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide (17.9 million) [1]. They studied the influence of different microbot shapes on the flow dynamics using a novel microfluidic hydrotunnel They analyzed in this microchannel the Newtonian and non-Newtonian rheological flow behavior around simplified 3D microbot prototypes using μ-PIV measurements. Other methodologies concerning numerical methods such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have been used to analyze flow behavior regarding hemodynamic analysis in blood vessels to better understand the development of CVDs [8,9,10]. Numerical studies involving the analysis of blood flow surrounding a 3D microbot should couple both CFD and FSI methods This is of utmost importance since some blood vessels could suffer deformation during the cardiac cycle [17].
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