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| Fluid Dynamics | |
In the 1980s, Georgia Tech biomedical
engineering researchers and collaborators
at The University of Chicago studied fluid
mechanics as applied to understanding the origins, detection and
treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Their subsequent
investigations with laser Doppler velocimetry and pulsed Doppler
ultrasound showed the potential importance of blood flow
disturbances in the early detection of carotid artery
atherosclerotic plaques, an arterial disease that often leads to
stroke. This work was adopted by clinicians and is now used in
vascular diagnostics around the world.
Because atherosclerotic plaques tend to be localized at sites
of branching and artery curvature and because researchers
expected these locations to harbor complex flow patterns, the
scientists hypothesized that fluid dynamics might play an
initiating role in atherosclerosis.
They considered several fluid
dynamic variables as possible initiating factors. Then they
conducted fluid dynamic model experiments and used physiologic
conditions to simulate arterial flows. Researchers also examined
the thickness of atherosclerotic plaques in human arteries.
Correlations between fluid dynamic variables and plaque
thickness revealed that atherosclerotic plaques tended to occur
at sites of low and oscillating artery wall shear stress. These
observations were reinforced by studies in animal models of
atherosclerosis. The findings set the stage for many subsequent
investigations on the importance of fluid dynamics in affecting
cellular function, a field of research that is very active today.
The researchers were led by Dr. Don P. Giddens, who now heads
the Georgia Tech-Emory University
School of Biomedical Engineering.
His collaborators included Dr. David Ku, now a
professor of mechanical engineering at Tech and a professor of
surgery at Emory. Key medical collaborators included Drs. C. K.
Zarins and S. Glagov of The University of Chicago.
Copyright PhotoDisc Inc., 1999
Georgia Tech scientists studied fluid mechanics as it
applied to understanding the origins, detection and treatment of
cardiovascular disease. Their subsequent diagnostic research was
adopted by clinicians and is now used in vascular diagnostics
around the world.
For more information, contact Dr. Don Giddens, School of Biomedical
Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0535. (Telephone: 404-894-6825) (E-mail:
don.giddens@bme.gatech.edu)
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