Modeling and hemodynamic simulation of human arterial stenosis via transmission line model

Arterial stenosis plays a key role in the development and formation of cardiovascular diseases. The effects of arterial stenosis on the global hemodynamic characteristics of human artery tree were studied based on a previously proposed transmission line model of 55 segment arterial tree. Different position, degree and length of the arterial stenosis were simulated to discuss the changes of blood pressure and flow waveform in human arterial tree. The stenosis degree of 50% to 90% were specified to represent a mild, moderate or severe stenosis. Three representative stenosis positions: aorta, carotid and iliac artery were selected. The stenosis length was specified to be 1cm to 4cm. The results of simulation were compared with the literature data. And ankle branchial index (ABI) was calculated to show its relationship with the stenosis position. The results showed that the influence of aorta stenosis on the blood pressure and flow waveforms of upstream artery is more obvious than those of downstream artery; branch artery stenosis has more influence on the blood pressure and flow waveforms of downstream artery than those of upstream artery. When the stenosis degree increased to 80%, the blood pressure and flow waveforms are affected significantly. The stenosis length causes a obvious change in the pressure and flow waveforms of stenosis inlet and outlet. The comparisons of literature and ABI demonstrated that the modeling method is a feasible tool to simulate and study the hemodynamics of the human artery stenosis.