Impact of endothelium roughness on blood flow.
Cell free layer (CFL), a plasma layer bounded by the red blood cell (RBC) core and the endothelium, plays an important physiological role. Its width affects the effective blood viscosity as well as the scavenging and production of nitric oxide (NO). Measurements of the CFL and its spatio-temporal variability are highly uncertain, exhibiting random fluctuations. Yet traditional models of blood flow and NO scavenging treat the CFL's bounding surfaces as deterministic and smooth. We investigate the effects of the endothelium roughness and uncertain (random) spatial variability on blood flow and the estimates of effective blood viscosity.
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Sang Woo
SW
Park
Marcos
M
Intaglietta
Daniel M
DM
Tartakovsky
D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology; D001809:Blood Viscosity / Q000502:physiology; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013499:Surface Properties