Department of Biomedical Engineering
McGill University
Supervisors: Dr. J.H.T Bates, Dr. S. Magder, Dr. H. Galiana,
The aim of this project was to extend a mathematical model of the cardiovascular circulation, originally built by Burkhoff and Tyberg. The model was implemented in Simulink and consists of 6 lumped vascular compartments interconnected by segments allowing unidirectional blood flow. A set of 6 differential equations describe changes in blood volume in the four systemic and two ventricular compartments as functions of time in terms of the pressure across each compartment and the resistances between them. The model was used to investigate why pulmonary venous pressure rises after the onset of left ventricular dysfunction. Special attention was given to the pericardial and peripheral resistance effects. Sensitivity analysis showed that our parameter values and ratios were more appropriate than those of Burkhoff and Tyberg. We conclude that, although stressed volume has a fundamental role in raising the pulmonary venous pressure, contractile strength and systemic arterial resistance also contribute considerably.