Alexander P.

Cook
Dr. Lipowsky
BME 301, Section 2
18 December 2014
Construction of a non-pulsatile cardiovascular model using Simulink
Background
Although pulsatile models of the cardiovascular system have many uses, non-pulsatile
models have also become increasingly popular. For studying certain aspects of blood pressure and
flow, the pulsatile component is not important to the underlying problem. Examples include the
effect of anesthetics and muscle relaxants that act on the body within minutes of injection. Because
they take effect so quickly, a non-pulsatile model is an excellent method to model the
pharmacokinetics of these drugs.1
In his 1991 book Mathematical and Computer Modeling of Physiological Systems, Vincent C. Rideout
describes a fourth-order non-pulsatile model of the cardiovascular system. A conceptual diagram of
the model is shown below1:

Figure 1: Conceptual diagram of Rideout's non-pulsatile cardiovascular model

The model is based on representing the cardiovascular system as a closed loop to which an
infusion flow is added for a specific duration of time. The resistors account for the resistance to
flow in various areas of the system. The capacitors model the compliance. Lastly, the four G
constants model the preload and afterload conductances of the right and left ventricles.1

Objectives
The objective of this paper is to model the equations described by Rideout in Simulink and
obtain outputs for the volumes, pressures, and resulting flows in different parts of the system as a
function of time due to the infusion flow.
Methods
The following equations from Rideout were used to build the physiological system. The
pressures in various parts of the system are as follows, where Q and C represent the stroke volume
and compliance respectively of each subsystem1:

[systemic arteries]
[systemic veins]
[pulmonary arteries]
[pulmonary veins]

The resulting flows were calculated using these pressures in the next set of equations, where
G represents the preload and afterload conductances of the right and left ventricles and R represents
the arterial resistances in the systemic and pulmonary blood vessels1:

= 1 2

[left heart]

= 3 4

[right heart]

[systemic]
[pulmonary]

These flows were then integrated in the following manner to determine the total volume in
each subsystem as a function of time. The infusion fI represents a constant infusion of 25 mL/s
from 1-3 seconds. In the last equation, these resultant volumes are added to obtain the total
cardiovascular system volume1:

= 0 ( )

= 0 ( + )

[systemic artery volume]

[systemic vein volume]

= 0 ( )

[pulmonary artery volume]

= 0 ( )

[pulmonary vein volume]

= + + +

[total system volume]

Using these equations, a Simulink model was built.

Results

Figure 2: Simulink model of Rideout's non-pulsatile cardiovascular model

After running the model, the following graphs were obtained for the infusion pulse and the
total volume of the system:

The systemic arterial pressure and systemic venous pressure were respectively obtained in
the following graphs:

The volumes of each of the four subsystems were obtained in the graph below. From top to
bottom, they are qS, qR, qP, and qL:

Finally, the flows fS, fR, fP, and fL were obtained as detailed below:

This shows that the model is useful for obtaining readings of pressure, volume, and flow for
Rideouts non-pulsatile cardiovascular model. Future experiments could potentially focus on
changing the input infusion flow or some of the other model parameters to see how the response
might change.
References
1. Rideout, Vincent C. "Nonpulsatile Cardiovascular Models." Mathematical and Computer
Modeling of Physiological Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991. 117-24. Print.