The Importance of Plasma Mixing in Bolus Flow,

The fluid-mechanical and biochemical processes which occur during the movement of a red blood cell through a capillary are exceedingly complex. The small scale and complexity of the capillary flow system makes quantitative experimental description very difficult and prevents a direct empirical modeling of the system at the present time. A theoretical approach directed at certain basic features of the fluid mechanics and transport processes in the microcirculation can indicate those features which must be considered in the development of a capillary flow model. A problem of great importance to the physiologist is the transport of nutritional material, e.g. oxygen, to the red blood cells. The conductivity of the endothelial wall itself has received great attention for many years. The relative magnitudes of transport by convection and diffusion in the plasma has not been studied, and this presentation will deal with theoretical estimates of those two modes of species transport.