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A three-dimensional, discrete-continuum model of blood pressure in microvascular networks.

Paul W SweeneyClaire WalshSimon Walker-SamuelRebecca J Shipley
Published in: International journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering (2024)
We present a 3D discrete-continuum model to simulate blood pressure in large microvascular tissues in the absence of known capillary network architecture. Our hybrid approach combines a 1D Poiseuille flow description for large, discrete arteriolar and venular networks coupled to a continuum-based Darcy model, point sources of flux, for transport in the capillary bed. We evaluate our hybrid approach using a vascular network imaged from the mouse brain medulla/pons using multi-fluorescence high-resolution episcopic microscopy (MF-HREM). We use the fully-resolved vascular network to predict the hydraulic conductivity of the capillary network and generate a fully-discrete pressure solution to benchmark against. Our results demonstrate that the discrete-continuum methodology is a computationally feasible and effective tool for predicting blood pressure in real-world microvascular tissues when capillary microvessels are poorly defined.
Keyphrases
  • blood pressure
  • high resolution
  • hypertensive patients
  • heart rate
  • gene expression
  • single molecule
  • type diabetes
  • mass spectrometry
  • high speed
  • adipose tissue
  • blood glucose
  • high throughput
  • single cell