Accuracy of the wave equation in predicting arterial pulse propagation

This paper investigates the effect of the various terms in the one-dimensional acoustic wave equation on the pulse characteristics within the aorta. To mimic the physiological nature of the systemic arteries, the aorta is modelled as an elastic conical tube. The frequency spectrum is used to study the effect of different terms in this equation on the pressure ratio between the aortic root at the heart exit and the iliac bifurcation. For validation, the effective reflection distance calculated using this model is within 7% error of clinical observations, suggesting that the model is able to mimic physiological pressure propagation with a high degree of accuracy and can therefore be used to generate and test hypotheses. This work demonstrates that: (i) tapering in the aorta lumen radius causes supplementary amplification of the pressure pulses in the system and increases the propagation velocity; however, tapering in the aorta wall thickness generates opposite effects, (ii) increasing the wall stiffness causes a change in the natural frequency of the system and increases the propagation velocity, and (iii) inclusion of either the advective momentum correction term or the viscosity term insignificantly affects the pressure ratio. The last observation suggests that the flow pattern does not influence the pressure propagation characteristics.