A novel formulation for blood trauma prediction by a modified power-law mathematical model

Abstract

With the increasing use of artificial organs, blood damage has been raising ever more clinical concern. Blood trauma is in fact a major complication resulting from the implantation of medical devices and the use of life support apparatuses. Red blood cells damage predictive models furnish critical information on both the design and the evaluation of artificial organs, because their correct usage and implementation are thought to provide clear and rational guidance for the improvement of safety and efficacy. The currently adopted power-law shear-induced haemolysis prediction model lacks sensitivity with respect to the cumulative effect of previously applied stress magnitudes. An alternative model is proposed where a mechanical quantity was defined, able to describe the blood damage sustained by red cells under unsteady stress conditions, taking into account the load history. The proposed formulation predicted the same trend as the available experimental data. The obtained results have to be considered a preliminary validation of the basic hypothesis of this modified red blood cell damage prediction model. To date, the necessity to design further experiments to validate the proposed damage function clashes with the limitations inherent to current systems to get the time-varying shear stress completely under control.

Biological effects of dynamic shear stress in cardiovascular pathologies and devices

“…Platelet activity decreased with increasing T2 or 'relaxation time' between the peak shear stress. The experimental results showing platelet damage and recovery under shear stress obtained herein were in excellent agreement with mathematical damage accumulation models proposed by Grigioni et al [72,73], originally developed for RBC hemolysis and adapted for platelets in the study described previously [65].…”

“…The mechanics and kinetics of recovery of platelets after acute shear-stress exposure have been recently experimentally investigated in the HSD as discussed previously [65]. These results show remarkable agreement with numerical predictions from a cumulative damage accumulation model (i.e., cumulative effect of previous activated state, shear loading history and exposure time) originally proposed to investigate RBC hemolysis [72,73]. More importantly, the study demonstrates the utility of dynamic viscometers in emulating shear-loading histories (and determination of their effects on platelets) typically found in arterial circulation and recirculation devices.…”

Hemolysis Prediction by using a Power-Law Mathematical Model in an Aortic Arterial Section

“…However, this model lacks sensitivity with respect to the cumulative effect of previously applied stress magnitudes [3].…”

“…Hemolysis prediction with mathematical models must fulfill 3 conditions proposed in [3]:  Condition 1: It must not have a reduction of damage by a decreasing shear stress [11].…”

“…An alternative formulation of power-law model was proposed by Grigioni et al in [3], where it is defined a mechanical quantity to describe the blood damage sustained by RBCs under unsteady stress conditions, taking into account the load history. This new formulation of the power-law model for blood damage prediction was originated from the observation of the similarities in aims and methods between the problem under investigation and dosimetry [3].…”