School of Mathematics

Nick Hill

Nick Hill abstract

School of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Glasgow

Modelling the Human Circulation

I shall present recent advances in multiscale mathematical and computational models of the systemic and pulmonary circulations that use structured trees to model the smaller vessels. The models are used to examine pressure drop within the systemic vascular beds in health and disease. The effects on flow and pressure associated with three classes of pulmonary hypertension, expressed via stiffening of larger and smaller vessels, and vascular rarefaction are studied. The results of simulating these pathological conditions are in agreement with clinical observations, showing that the model has potential for assisting with diagnosis and treatment of circulatory diseases within the lung. The approximations used in experiments on wave intensity analysis are assessed, and we show the existence of reflected waves lowers the peak pressure in the right ventricle in our models.

Authors: N. A. Hill1, M. U. Qureshi1,2, M. S. Olufsen2, G. D. A. Vaughan1, C. S. Peskin3, C. Sainsbury1, M. Johnson4; 1 University of Glasgow 2 North Carolina State University 3 New York University 4 Golden Jubilee Hospital, Glasgow