2009 年 4 巻 1 号 p. 234-245
Clinical arterial stiffness indexes such as PWV (pulse wave velocity) or PP (pulse pressure), which are obtained by analyzing blood pressure pulse waveforms in vivo, are used in the prognosis of cardiovascular diseases and thus analyses of pulse waveform are clinically important. The pulse wave in vivo, however, is complicated because of the complex viscoelastic property of the blood vessel wall. In addition, numerical flow simulations are useful for understanding pulse wave propagation in circulatory systems. Our proposed nonlinear one-dimensional numerical simulation model can accurately simulate the measurements of pressure waves in a silicone rubber tube and indicate that the viscoelasticity of the tube wall was significantly influenced by a single pulse waveform; however, the influence of viscoelasticity change on periodic pulsatile wave propagation has not yet been studied. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of viscoelasticity change on the periodic pulsatile wave. For this purpose, we examined the effect of the viscoelasticity of a single silicone tube on periodic pulse wave propagation by comparing the calculated results using a one-dimensional model. As a result, the one-dimensional model could accurately express the experimental results with periodic pulsatile waves. In addition, both PWV and PP increase when the viscoelastic value of the dynamic modulus elasticity ratio increases, because increasing the elastic modulus is more effective than the energy dissipation effect by viscoelasticity change. Consequently, it is necessary to measure the viscoelastic property of the vessel wall accurately in order to estimate the arterial stiffness index (PWV and PP) accurately.
