Date Available

12-7-2011

Year of Publication

2008

Document Type

Thesis

College

Engineering

Department

Biomedical Engineering

First Advisor

Abhijit Patwardhan

Abstract

Noninvasive measurements of myocardial carboxymyoglobin levels (%MbCO) and oxygen tensions (PtO2) are difficult to obtain experimentally. We have developed a compartmental model which allows prediction of myocardial %MbCO levels and PtO2 for varied carbon monoxide (CO) exposures. The cardiac compartment in the model consists of vascular subcompartments which contain two tissue subcompartments varying in capillary density. Mass-balance equations for oxygen (O2) and CO are applied for all compartments. Myocardial oxygen consumption and blood flow are quantified from predictive formulas based on heart rate. Model predictions are validated with experimental data at normoxia, hypoxia, exercise and hyperoxia. CO exposures of varying concentration and time (short-high, long-low), CO rebreathing during 100% O2, and exposure during exercise is simulated. Results of the simulations demonstrate that during CO exposures and subsequent therapies, the temporal changes of %MbCO in the heart differ from those of carboxyhemoglobin levels (%HbCO). Analysis of correlation between %HbCO, %MbCO and PtO2 was done to understand myocardial injury due to CO hypoxia. This thesis demonstrates that the model is able to anticipate the uptake and distribution of CO in the human myocardium and thus can be used to estimate the extravascular burden (MbCO, PtO2 ) of CO on the human heart.

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