Affiliations: Physiological Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas
Note: [1] These remarks were prepared for presentation as introductory comments at Symposium I at the 3rd European Conference on Clinical Hemorheology held in Badden-Baden, F.R.G., August 24–27, 1983.
Abstract: The evidence for a hemodynamic involvement and possible mechanisms by which hemodynamic-related events could influence the arterial wall, and in particular the vascular endothelium, are reviewed and used to speculate on the role of fluid mechanics in atherogenesis and specifically in lesion localization. The evidence presented suggests that it is vascular geometry, and the way it influences the local detailed flow properties, which is the primary determinant of a hemodynamic effect on the arterial wall and in the initiation of atherosclerosis.
