Hemorheology and hemodynamics

Abstract

In this first approach to the subject we start describing a few basic facts about blood composition and about the circulatory system. Such notions will be enriched in the rest of the book, when needed. Concerning modeling, this chapter is devoted to the debatable question of the rheological properties of blood and to the various ways the circulatory system has been described in a mathematical way, both at the scale of main vessels and at the level of microcirculation. The peculiar phenomenon of vessels oscillation (vasomotion) will be considered briefly, and the literature on the mathematical modeling of diseases like atherosclerosis, affecting blood flow through arteries, will be illustrated.