Flow patterns through vascular graft models with and without cuffs

Authors

Chia Min Leong, Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteFollow
Gary B. Nackman, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Timothy Wei, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

Leong CM, Nackman GB, Wei T (2018) Flow patterns through vascular graft models with and without cuffs. PLoS ONE 13(2): e0193304. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193304

Comments

© 2018 Leong et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Abstract

The shape of a bypass graft plays an important role on its efficacy. Here, we investigated flow through two vascular graft designs±with and without cuff at the anastomosis. We conducted Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) measurements to obtain the flow field information through these vascular grafts. Two pulsatile flow waveforms corresponding to cardiac cycles during the rest and the excitation states, with 10% and without retrograde flow out the proximal end of the native artery were examined. In the absence of retrograde flow, the straight end-to-side graft showed recirculation and stagnation regions that lasted throughout the full cardiac cycle with the stagnation region more pronounced in the excitation state. The contoured end-to-side graft had stagnation region that lasted only for a portion of the cardiac cycle and was less pronounced. With 10% retrograde flow, extended stagnation regions under both rest and excitation states for both bypass grafts were eliminated. Our results show that bypass graft designers need to consider both the type of flow waveform and presence of retrograde flow when sculpting an optimal bypass graft geometry.