Theoretical and experimental study of intermittent blood flows in microcirculation: Application to the in-vivo determination of compliance

A new theoretical approach was used to study the nonlinear response of a mi crovascular segment subjected to a pressure step at one end. The method is suitable for both large and small deformations of the vessel wall in the ca se of an elastic response of the segment. It is shown that the use of this simulation permits an indirect determination of the compliance of the vesse l. The procedure is applied in two cases of major interest: first the in-vi vo study of the intermittent blood flow in the microcirculation, and second , the analysis of experiments using micropipettes. The resulting values of the compliance agree with other values found in the previous studies. The t heoretical method is particularly adapted to nonlinear equations.