Transport by pulsatile flow in a branching network of cerebral vasculature

Abstract

The supply of oxygen and glucose by blood flow is vital to the normal function of the brain and the deficit of either of these metabolism elements can cause severe degradation of the brain functionality. The transport of materials in the complex multi-branching structure of the cerebral vasculature is investigated to predict brain oxygenation under normal conditions. A mathematical model of material transport due to pulsatile flow in a complex dichotomous branching tree network was developed which incorporated material-geometry interaction and diffusion across the blood vessel wall. Unlike previous work, this modelling work includes the full network structure and incorporates time-dependent ..