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'Sausage-String' Patterns in Blood Vessels at High Blood Pressures

Alstrom, Preben; Eguiluz, Victor M.; Gustafsson, Finn; Holstein-Rathlou, Niels-Henrik
Statistical Mechanics of Biocomplexity, Proceedings of the XV Sitges Conference held at Sitges, Barcelona, Spain, 8-12 June 1998. Reguera, D., Vilar, J.M.G., Rubi, J.M. (Eds.) , Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1999) 24-37 (1999)

A new Rayleigh-type instability is proposed to explain the 'sausage-string' pattern of alternating constrictions and dilatations formed in blood vessels at high blood pressure conditions. Our theory involves the nonlinear stress-strain characteristics of the vessel wall, and provides predictions for the conditions under which the normal cylindrical geometry of a blood vessel becomes unstable. The theory explains key features observed experimentally, e.g. the limited occurrence of the sausage-string pattern to small arteries and large arterioles, and only in those with small wall-to-lumen
ratios.

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