Abstract
Although some of the cardiovascular responses to changes in hematocrit (Hct) are not fully quantified experimentally, available information is sufficient to build a mathematical model of the consequences of treating anemia by introducing RBCs into the circulation via blood transfusion. We present such a model, which describes how the treatment of normovolemic anemia with blood transfusion impacts oxygen (O2) delivery (DO2, the product of blood O2 content and arterial blood flow) by the microcirculation. Our analysis accounts for the differential response of the endothelium to the wall shear stress (WSS) stimulus, changes in nitric oxide (NO) production due to modification of blood viscosity caused by alterations of both hematocrit (Hct) and cell free layer thickness, as well as for their combined effects on microvascular blood flow and DO2. Our model shows that transfusions of 1- and 2-unit of blood have a minimal effect on DO2 if the microcirculation is unresponsive to the WSS stimulus for NO production that causes vasodilatation increasing blood flow and DO2. Conversely, in a fully WSS responsive organism, blood transfusion significantly enhances blood flow and DO2, because increased viscosity stimulates endothelial NO production causing vasodilatation. This finding suggests that evaluation of a patients' pre-transfusion endothelial WSS responsiveness should be beneficial in determining the optimal transfusion requirements for treating anemic patients.
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