Influences of the Compliances and the Resistance on Pulsatile Flow Waveforms

Abstract

A pulsatile circulation system has been built to simulate aortic blood flow. The system has both upstream and downstream compliances and resistances to simulate the elasticity and resistances of blood circulation system. Influences of the compliances and resistances on the pulsatile pressure waveforms have been systematically studied using this system. We found that in absence of the compliances and the downstream resistance, it results in an oversize negative pulsation to the pressure waveforms. The downstream resistance hardly affects the structure of the pressure waveforms, whereas the mean amplitude of pressure increases along with the downstream resistance. The compliance can reduce the peak value of the pressure, which is unrelated to the location of the compliance but related to the elasticity in the system. With fixed upstream system elasticity, the pressure waveform is more stable.