Pressure gradient estimation based on ultrasonic blood flow measurement

Mechanical load to the blood vessel wall, such as shear stress and pressure, which occurs in blood flow dynamics, contribute greatly to plaque rupture in arteriosclerosis and to biochemical activation of endothelial cells. Therefore, noninvasive estimations of these mechanical loads are able to provide useful information for the prevention of vascular diseases. Although the pressure is the dominant component of mechanical load, for practical purposes, the pressure gradient is also often important. So far, we have investigated the estimation of the kinematic viscosity coefficient using a combination of the Navier-Stokes equations and ultrasonic velocity measurement. In this paper, a method for pressure gradient estimation using the estimated kinematic viscosity coefficient is proposed. The validity of the proposed method was investigated on the basis of the analysis with the data obtained by computer simulation and a flow phantom experiment. These results revealed that the proposed method can provide a valid estimation of the pressure gradient.