Abstract
Previous studies on red blood cell (RBC) aggregation have elucidated the inverse relationship between shear rate and RBC aggregation under Poiseuille flow. However, the local parabolic rouleaux pattern in the arterial flow observed in ultrasonic imaging cannot be explained by shear rate alone. A quantitative approach is required to analyze the spatiotemporal variation in arterial pulsatile flow and the resulting RBC aggregation. In this work, a 2D RBC model was used to simulate RBC motion driven by interactional and hydrodynamic forces based on the depletion theory of the RBC mechanism. We focused on the interaction between the spatial distribution of shear rate and the dynamic motion of RBC aggregation under sinusoidal pulsatile flow. We introduced two components of shear rate, namely, the radial and axial shear rates, to understand the effect of sinusoidal pulsatile flow on RBC aggregation. The simulation results demonstrated that specific ranges of the axial shear rate and its ratio with radial shear rate strongly affected local RBC aggregation and parabolic rouleaux formation. These findings are important, as they indicate that the spatiotemporal variation in shear rate has a crucial role in the aggregate formation and local parabolic rouleaux under pulsatile flow.
Highlights
Previous studies on red blood cell (RBC) aggregation have elucidated the inverse relationship between shear rate and RBC aggregation under Poiseuille flow
The presentation study performs a numerical investigation to understand in detail the dynamic RBC motion under sinusoidal pulsatile flow conditions
This work provides insights into local RBC aggregation which was analyzed with the axial shear rate and its ratio to radial shear rate under sinusoidal pulsatile flow
Summary
The presentation study performs a numerical investigation to understand in detail the dynamic RBC motion under sinusoidal pulsatile flow conditions. This simple counting approach of aggregated RBCs does not sufficiently evaluate the local RBC aggregation and rouleaux patterns separately, requiring further work This numerical RBC model simulated the spatial and temporal variations in RBC aggregation under sinusoidal pulsatile flow. From the perspective of the three dynamic forces influencing RBC motion, the interpretation of RBC behavior in that work is similar to that observed in our study, but the rheological sinusoidal flow characteristics affecting the variations in temporal and spatial RBC aggregation were different, resulting in parabolic rouleaux formation in this study. It is challenging to provide fundamental morphological properties and blood flow conditions in the simulation due to the limitations of computational time and capability limitations Biochemical properties such as fibrinogen and polymer were not investigated in terms of their relation to the microscopic mechanism of RBC aggregation, but the interactional forces in the depletion model partially reflect these properties. The axial variation in the blood velocity profile in the elastic artery could be simulated in silico and measured in vivo to apply this primary study to future dynamic RBC aggregation studies under pulsatile flow
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