No description available.

<p>A pulsatile flow loop can be suitable for measurement of in vitro blood pressure. The pressure data collected from such a system can be used for evaluating stenosis in human arteries, a condition in which the arterial lumen size is reduced. The objective of this work is to develop an experimental system to simulate blood flow in the human arterial system. This system will measure the in vitro hemodynamics using 3-D prints of vessels extracted from patient CT images. Images are segmented and processed to produce 3-D prints of vessel geometry, which are mounted in the loop. Control of flow and pressure is made possible by the use of components such as a pulsatile heart pump, resistance, and compliance elements. Output data is evaluated by comparison with CFD and invasive measurement. The system is capable of measurement of the pressures such as proximal, Pa, and distal, Pd, pressures to evaluate in vivo conditions and to assess the severity of stenosis. This is determined by use of parameters such as fractional flow reserve  </p> <p>(FFR=Pd/Pa) or trans-stenotic pressure gradient (TSPG=Pa-Pd) This can be done on a non-invasive, patient specific basis, to avoid the risk and high cost of invasive measurement.</p> <p>     In its operation, the preliminary measurement of blood pressures demonstrates agreement with the invasive measurement as well as the CFD results. These preliminary results are encouraging and can be improved upon by continuing development of the experimental system. A working pulsatile loop has been reached, an initial step taken for continued development. This loop is capable of measuring the flow and pressure from in a 3-D printed artery. Future works will include more life-like material for the artery prints, as well as cadaver vessels.</p>

The purpose of this research is to expand the understanding of certain properties of electrodes used for electrical bioimpedance measurements. Specifically, this work investigates the acclimation effect of the skin-electrode interface contact impedance. It also attempts to study the relationship between electrode spacing and amplitude of bioimpedance pulsatile signals. It was found that as soon as dry electrodes are placed on the skin, the contact impedance exponentially decreases until it reaches a constant level. The acclimation time, time to reach a constant contact impedance, is dependent of the electrode size and frequency. Increasing the size of the electrode, as well as increasing the frequency, decreases the acclimation time. The acclimation of wet electrodes was also studied, and it was found that changes in contact impedance over time are negligible in comparison to the amount dry electrodes contact impedance change. However, the contact impedance of wet electrodes, instead of decreasing, tends to increase just slightly before reaching a steady state. Electrodes that do not carry current have contact impedance magnitudes similar to those that carried current after 60 minutes. This acclimation effect seems to be driven by the moisture level in the skin-electrode interface. As sweat and moisture build up with time when using dry electrodes, contact impedance decreases; and as the moisture in wet electrodes dries up with time, contact impedance increases. Capturing the small bioimpedance changes due to blood flow in the artery proved to be quite challenging under the circular orientation and with low levels of current injected. Only 5% of all the pulsatile data acquired had high enough quality to have a discernible pulsatile signal present on it. From the analysis of this 5% of data there were not conclusive results with regards the effect of electrode spacing on the pulsatile signal amplitude. However, the placement of the electrodes relative to the artery did seem to play a role on the pulse signal amplitude since the pulse amplitude seemed to peak when the center of the 4 electrodes was close to the artery. Pulsatile signal does not seem to be consistent throughout time; performing the same measurement 50 minutes apart sometimes resulted in the same or very similar measurements and other time the measurements were very different from each other. Despite the inconclusive results, the system for switching and selecting electrodes from an array of multiple electrodes along with the algorithm to determine the quality of the measured pulsatile signal proved to be efficient and serves as a foundation for developing a measurement system that can search and identify the the electrode configuration and placement that results in acquiring high quality signals.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Non-pulsatile and pulsatile flow in bent pipes and radial turbine has been assessed with numerical simulations. The flow field in a single bent pipe has been computed with different turbulence modelling approaches. A comparison with measured data shows that Implicit Large Eddy Simulation (ILES) gives the best agreement in terms of mean flow quantities. All computations with the different turbulence models qualitatively capture the so called Dean vortices. The Dean vortices are a pair of counter-rotating vortices that are created in the bend, due to inertial effects in combination with a radial pressure gradient. The pulsatile flow in a double bent pipe has also been considered. In the first bend, the Dean vortices are formed and in the second bend a swirling motion is created, which will together with the Dean vortices create a complex flow field downstream of the second bend. The strength of these structures will vary with the amplitude of the axial flow. For pulsatile flow, a phase shift between the velocity and the pressure occurs and the phase shift is not constant during the pulse depending on the balance between the different terms in the Navier- Stokes equations. The performance of a radial turbocharger turbine working under both non-pulsatile and pulsatile flow conditions has also been investigated by using ILES. To assess the effect of pulsatile inflow conditions on the turbine performance, three different cases have been considered with different frequencies and amplitude of the mass flow pulse and different rotational speeds of the turbine wheel. The results show that the turbine cannot be treated as being quasi-stationary; for example, the shaft power varies with varying frequency of the pulses for the same amplitude of mass flow. The pulsatile flow also implies that the incidence angle of the flow into the turbine wheel varies during the pulse. For the worst case, the relative incidence angle varies from approximately −80° to +60°. A phase shift between the pressure and the mass flow at the inlet and the shaft torque also occurs. This phase shift increases with increasing frequency, which affects the accuracy of the results from 1-D models based on turbine maps measured under non-pulsatile conditions. For a turbocharger working under internal combustion engine conditions, the flow into the turbine is pulsatile and there are also unsteady secondary flow components, depending on the geometry of the exhaust manifold situated upstream of the turbine. Therefore, the effects of different perturbations at the inflow conditions on the turbine performance have been assessed. For the different cases both turbulent fluctuations and different secondary flow structures are added to the inlet velocity. The results show that a non-disturbed inlet flow gives the best performance, while an inflow condition with a certain large scale eddy in combination with turbulence has the largest negative effect on the shaft power output. / QC 20101111

Angle-closure glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in the United States and around the world. New research has indicated that intraocular pressure is not the only risk factor associated with glaucomatous optic neuropathy. In recent years, a vascular deregulation in ocular blood flow has been considered a possible risk factor in glaucoma. A laser peripheral iridoplasty is a standard treatment option in non-pupillary block angle-closure glaucoma. The present study employed a secondary retrospective design and utilized patient’s data from an ophthalmologist’s practice. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of laser peripheral iridoplasty on pulsatile ocular blood flow in primary angle-closure glaucoma and primary angle-closure suspects. A sample of 30 eyes from 17 patients was analyzed for this study. A significant increase in pulsatile ocular blood flow was found among primary angle-closure suspects. Additional data analysis was performed through SPSS software to examine the effect on these variables by age, sex and medical history as a total sample and in each group. Primary angle-closure suspects who were 51-60 years old showed a significant increase in intraocular pressure after laser treatment, however, primary angle-closure glaucoma patients who were 71-80 years old showed a significant decrease in intraocular pressure. Furthermore, a significant increase in pulsatile ocular blood flow was found in female subjects among primary angle-closure suspects, supporting the need for gender medicine research. Lastly, the pulsatile ocular blood flow increased significantly among primary angle-closure suspects who were also suffering from cardiovascular disease. Among primary angle-closure glaucoma patients who were suffering from both cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus, a significant decrease in intraocular pressure was observed.

The purpose of this study is to develop a test method to non-invasively measure the development of subclinical atherosclerosis through acoustic sound wave analysis. This test method involves the manufacturing and use of silicone arteries with varying relative roughness values in their inner diameters to mimic arterial plaque buildup, a flow model, and a physiological microphone. A flow model that can generate both steady and oscillatory flow to mimic the pulsatile flow of a heartbeat was developed to successfully test and analyze fluid flow through the varying arteries. The first finding in this study was that confocal microscopy is an effective method is quantifying the surface roughness of the inner diameter the silicone artery phantoms. Results of this study found that the surface roughness of the arteries reflects the increase of surface roughness hypothesized when manufacturing the artery molds. The gravitational flow model experimental design proved to be effective in collecting steady flow data that was used to verify the experimental relative roughness and friction factor values. Additionally, the results indicated that pressure drop and friction factor (both experimental and theoretical) increased as the surface roughness of the artery increased. Furthermore, the pulsatile flow model was unsuccessful in generating a consistent frequency that was greater than 2.0 Hz. Because of this, many of the Womersley’s numbers remained undefined or frequency dependent. No concrete conclusions can be drawn regarding the relationship between Womersley’s number and surface roughness during pulsatile flow. A key finding in this study was that the signal power of an FFT of the audio data vs. relative roughness for both steady and pulsatile flow conditions experienced a slightly positive linear association. Meaning that there could be a relationship between the increase of surface roughness and the increase of signal power in an FFT of the audio data. Based on the findings in this study, this demonstrates that there could be a method to correlate the values of signal power to a specific relative roughness value.

Im Rahmen dieser Dissertation wurden anhand eines Ferkelmodells (8-15kg Schweine, 5 Gruppen: „nicht pulsatile HLM“: n=9, „Minozyklin+HLM“: n= 6, „pulsatile HLM“: n=7, „Minozyklin-Kontrolle: n=6, „Kontrolle“: n=8) während einer 120-minütigen extrakorporaler Zirkulation (EKZ) und einer darauffolgenden 90-minütigen Rekonvaleszenzzeit der physikalische Einflussfaktor des pulsatilen Flusses sowie der pharmakologische Effekt von Minozyklin auf die Niere jeweils unabhängig voneinander untersucht. In allen Gruppen wurden HE-Färbungen sowie immunhistochemische Färbungen (HIF-1-α, 3-Nitrotyrosin, PAR, AIF) durchgeführt um pathologische Veränderungen auf zellulärer Ebene zu detektieren. Zusätzlich wurden energiereiche Phosphate und ihre Abbauprodukte mittels High Pressure/Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) bestimmt. Zur Beurteilung der klinischen Funktion der Niere wurden nierenspezifische Blutwerte (Serumkreatinin, Serumharnstoff) und Laktat im arteriellen Blut bestimmt. Mit der pulsatilen Perfusion konnte ein Abfall des O2-Partialdruckes nicht verhindert werden (HIF-1-α), allerdings konnte die ATP-Konzentration aufrecht erhalten werden. Dies spricht dafür, dass die pulsatile Perfusion im Gegensatz zu der nicht pulsatilen Perfusion keinen relevanten O2-Mangel verursachte. Auch die Ergebnisse der Nitrotyrosin-3-Auswertung zeigen, dass die Bildung von Peroxynitrit reduziert und somit der nitrosative Stress auf die Zellen begrenzt wurde. Die DNA wurde jedoch unabhängig vom gewählten Blutflussprofil geschädigt (PAR). Auch anhand der nierenspezifischen Blutparameter (Serumkreatinin, Serumharnstoff) ließ sich eine postoperative Beeinträchtigung der Nierenfunktion feststellen. Im Vergleich zu der nicht pulsatilen EKZ war hier jedoch eine geringfügige Verbesserung zu erkennen (Serumkreatinin). Zusammenfassend kann gesagt werden, dass durch die pulsatile EKZ der Grad der Ischämie beeinflusst werden konnte, allerdings waren insgesamt keine wesentlich positiven Auswirkungen auf zellulärer Ebene und auf die postoperative Nierenfunktion festzustellen. Der Einsatz des technisch anspruchsvollen pulsatilen Perfusionssystems scheint daher in Bezug auf die Niere in der routinemäßigen Herzchirurgie nicht unbedingt erforderlich zu sein. Durch die Gabe von Minozyklin wurde zwar der Grad der Ischämie (HIF-1-α, ATP) nicht beeinflusst, allerdings konnte Minozyklin durch seine antioxidativen bzw. antinitrosativen (3-Nitrotyrosin), PARP-1-hemmenden (PAR) sowie antiapoptotischen (AIF) Wirkmechanismen die Niere offenbar vor den Folgen einer Ischämie schützen. Anhand der nierenspezifischen Blutwerte (Serumkreatinin, Serumharnstoff) wurde erkenntlich, dass Minozyklin die Nierenfunktion positiv beeinflusst, was wiederum die histologischen Befunde bestätigt. Für die Humanmedizin ist somit der Einsatz von Minozyklin während der EKZ eine Möglichkeit die Auswirkungen des Ischämie/Reperfusionsschadens und deren klinische Folgen hinsichtlich der Niere zu begrenzen. Allerdings muss berücksichtigt werden, dass der einmalige Einsatz eines Antibiotikums auch negativen Einfluss auf den Körper ausübt (Resistenzentwicklung, Nebenwirkungen), sodass Minozyklin aufgrund der in dieser Versuchsreihe gezeigten positiven Eigenschaften, insbesondere die PARP-1-Inhibition, lediglich als Modellsubstanz für Weiterentwicklungen genutzt werden kann.