Blood viscosity measurement: an integral method using Doppler ultrasonic profiles

¹ M.S.C. Laboratoire de Biorhéologie et d'Hydrodynamique Physico-chimique, UMR CNRS 343, Université Paris 7, 2 place Jussieu, 75251 Paris Cedex 05, France
² Laboratoire d'Informatique et de Mathématiques Appliquées, Unité Associée de Biomécanique Circulatoire, CNRST, Rabat, Morocco

Corresponding author: patrice.flaud@ccr.jussieu.fr

Received: 26 October 2004
Revised: 25 May 2005
Accepted: 24 June 2005
Published online: 30 November 2005

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present a new indirect and noninvasive method for the measurement of the Newtonian blood viscosity. Based on an integral form of the axial Navier-Stokes equation, this method is particularly suited for in vivo investigations using ultrasonic arterial blood velocity profiles. Its main advantage is that it is applicable to periodic as well as non periodic flows. Moreover it does not require classical filtering methods enhancing signal to noise ratio of the physiological signals. This method only requires the knowledge of the velocimetric data measured inside a spatially and temporally optimized zone of the Doppler velocity profiles. The results obtained using numerical simulation as well as in vitro or in vivo experiments prove the effectiveness of the method. It is then well adapted to the clinical environment as a systematic quasi on-line method for the measurement of the blood viscosity.