E-Thesis 442 views 172 downloads
Numerical Study of Lymph Mechanics / DANIEL WATSON
Swansea University Author: DANIEL WATSON
DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.58474
Abstract
Methods taken from engineering and computer science were applied to the lymphatic system. Starting with a 3D analysis of a single subject-specific lymphatic valve. A mechanism was presented to explain previous experimental results showing the effect of trans-mural pressure on the pressure required to...
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Swansea
2021
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| Institution: | Swansea University |
| Degree level: | Doctoral |
| Degree name: | Ph.D |
| Supervisor: | van Loon, Raoul |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa58474 |
| Abstract: |
Methods taken from engineering and computer science were applied to the lymphatic system. Starting with a 3D analysis of a single subject-specific lymphatic valve. A mechanism was presented to explain previous experimental results showing the effect of trans-mural pressure on the pressure required to close lymphatic valves. The impor-tance of wall motion in future FSI studies of lymphatic valve dynamics were identified. Previous approaches to lumped modelling of the lymphatic system were considered and modifications were proposed. A less-idealised valve model, incorporating trans-mural dependent bias, was proposed as well as a method of allowing self-organised contrac-tion through a stretch-dependent frequency of contraction. A network of the superficial lymphatics of the upper-limb was reconstructed from an anatomical sketch. The net-work was used in conjunction with the lumped model to produce a 421 vessel lymphatic model consisting of 17,706 lymphangions. Several issues which impede large network scale modelling of the lymphatic system are identified. A simplified patient-specific biphasic model of lymphoedema was proposed and used to develop a novel shape-based metric for lymphoedema. A statistically significant relationship between the metric and the presence of lymphoedema was found. |
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| Item Description: |
ORCiD identifier https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7841-6637 |
| Keywords: |
Lymphatics, 0D Modelling, Shape Analysis |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |