Effects of Hematocrit on Impedance and Shear Stress during Stenosed Artery Catheterization

The flow of blood through a stenosed catheterized artery has been studied. To observe the effects of hematocrit, blood has been represented by a two-phase macroscopic model (i.e., a suspension of red cells in plasma). It is found that for any given catheter size, the impedance increases with hematocrit and also for a given hematocrit, the same increases with the catheter size. In the stenotic region, the wall shear stress increases in the upstream of the stenosis throat and decreases in the downstream in an uncatheterized artery but the same possesses an opposite character in the case of a catheterized artery. The shear stress at the stenosis throat possesses the character similar to the flow resistance (impedance) with respect to the hematocrit for a given catheter size, however, the same decreases with an increase in the size of the catheter for any given hematocrit.