5) Principles of Haemodynamics Flashcards
What is Haemodynamics?
- The relationship between blood flow, blood pressure and resistance to flow
What are the key factors in haemodynamics?
- Force: Cardiac contraction
- Work: Isovolumetric contraction/ ejection
- Pressure: Difference between different vessels
- Compliance: Atrial stretch
- Resistance: In arterioles
- Flow velocity: Slowing down blood flow in capillaries
Is the CVS an open or closed system?
- The CVS is a closed system.
- A change in one part of the system has an impact on other parts of the system
(For e.g.: reduced blood flow in one area increases pressure upstream and alters flow in other areas)
How many capillary beds normally does blood go through?
1
What is it called when blood goes through 2 capillary beds?
- A portal system
Where is majority of the blood found in the CVS?
- In the veins
How does venous blood affect cardiac output?
- It can be used to increase cardiac output (Starling’s law)
- Veins have a thin muscle layer and so contract slightly
- When they contract they send more blood back into the heart and so put more blood into arterial circulation
- This as a result increases cardiac output
What is Darcy’s law of Haemodynamics?
- Role of pressure energy in flow
- Flow = (P1 - P2)/ R
P1 - P2: difference in pressure (from arterial to venous end)
R: Resistance to flow
What is Bernoulli’s Law of Haemodynamics?
- Role of pressure, kinetic and potential energies in flow (not pressure alone)
- Kinetic energy refers to the momentum of blood
- Potential energy refers to the effect of gravity
- Flow = Pressure (P) + Kinetic (ρV^2/2) + Potential (ρgh) ρ = Fluid mass P = pressure V = velocity h = height g = acceleration due to gravity
What is blood flow?
- Volume of blood flowing in a given time (ml/min)
What is Perfusion?
- Blood flow per given mass of tissue (ml/min/g)
What is velocity of blood flow?
- Speed of blood flow (cm/s) affected by the cross sectional area of the vessel in which blood flows.
- Flow may remain the same but velocity changes if there is a change in the cross sectional area.
What is the relationship between cross-sectional area and velocity of blood flow?
- The greater the cross-sectional area the slower the blood flow. This is why blood flow is slowest in the capillaries
- When veins come together once again the velocity increases
Explain the change in total area and velocity of vascular bed from aorta to the vena cavae
- In the aorta velocity is very high as there is a very small total area.
- As the aorta branches into arteries the total area increases causing the velocity to decrease.
- Arteries branch into arterioles and arterioles into capilliaries which have the largest area (as area keeps increasing with each branching) causing velocity to be slowest.
- The slow velocity in the capillaries allows for gas and nutrient exchange to take place.
- The capillaries at the end of the bed join together to form venules which have a smaller area and a larger velocity.
- Venules then join together to form veins and veins join together to the vena cavae
- At each joining the area gets smaller and the velocity gets bigger and bigger
- In the venae cavae we end with an area that is similar to the aorta but a lower velocity
What is the equation for volume flow?
- Volume flow (Q) = Velocity (V) x Area (A)