The principal functions of the cardiovascular system include the transport of blood, nutrients, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. Proper functioning of the organs and blood vessels helps to protect the body against infection and regulate temperature and pH levels.  However, the diameter of blood vessels may narrow over time due to the build-up of cholesterol, fatty deposits, etc.  This narrowing and partial blockage of passages is referred to as stenosis. This will result in symptoms such as reduced blood flow to certain organs, difficulty breathing, and other grave circulatory problems. For instance, carotid artery stenosis can cause cerebral stroke and coronary artery stenosis can occasion chest pain and heart attack. There is also a significant change in the pressure distribution and wall shear stress within an artery.  As a result, many researchers have looked at circumstances that ascertain how the level of constriction in a diseased artery influences the blood flow and the distribution of any solute intake such as a drug or oxygen.

The insertion of a catheter can impact blood flow in arteries. At a minimum, the injection of a catheter refashions the flow field and disrupts the forces involved in blood circulation within the vessel. In particular, the medical procedure of coronary (balloon) angioplasty is used to disintegrate deposits of fat and widen stenosed portions of arteries.

A team of research from the Department of Mathematics at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus Ajani Asurau (Graduate Student), Nagarani Ponakala (Senior Lecturer), Victor M. Job (Lecturer) investigated how a solute is dispersed through a catheterized artery in the presence of stenosis.  The team modelled this situation, and the fluid (blood) flow equations are solved via the perturbation technique and expressions for flow velocity and the shear stress on the artery wall are obtained. By using the velocity obtained, the convection-diffusion equation describing solute transport in the blood is analysed using the finite element method in the case of a continuous supply of solute at the inlet.

The study revealed that the non-Newtonian property of the blood and the height of the stenotic region have a marked impact on the axial dispersion of solute. These results have applications to oxygen or drug transport processes in catheterized stenosed arteries.

Reference:  Ajani Ausaru, Nagarani Ponakala, Victor M. Job. Numerical investigation of solute dispersion in a non-Newtonian fluid flow through a catheterized artery with mild stenosis. Chinese Journal of Physics 89 (2024): 541-564.

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