On the examination of the viscous response of the brachial artery during flow-mediated dilation

Abstract

In this study, mechanotransduction is investigated through a physics-based viscoelastic model describing the arterial diameter response during a brachial artery flow mediated dilation (BAFMD) test. The study is a significant extension of two earlier studies by the same group, where only the elastic response was considered. Experimental BAFMD responses were collected from 12 healthy volunteers. The arterial wall's elastic and viscous properties were treated as local variable quantities depending on the wall shear stress (WSS) sensed by mechanotransduction. The dimensionless parameters, arising from the model which serve as a quantitative assessment of the artery's physical state, were adjusted to replicate the experimental response. Among those dimensionless parameters, the viscoelastic ratio, which reflects the relative strength of the viscous response compared to its elastic counterpart, is of special relevance to this paper's main conclusion. Based on the results, it is concluded that the arterial wall's mechanical behavior is predominantly elastic, at least in the strict context of the BAFMD test. Recommendations for potential future research and applications are provided.

Keywords: Flow mediated dilation; Fluid-structure interaction; Mechanotransduction; Viscoelastic model; Wall shear stress.