Department of Applied Mathematics, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Ann Biomed Eng. 2010 Mar;38(3):1204-15. doi: 10.1007/s10439-010-9902-z.
In the field of fluid flow within the human body, focus has been placed on the transportation of blood in the systemic circulation since the discovery of that system; but, other fluids and fluid flow phenomena pervade the body. Some of the most fascinating fluid flow phenomena within the human body involve fluids other than blood and a service other than transport--the lymphatic and pulmonary systems are two striking examples. While transport is still involved in both cases, this is not the only service which they provide and blood is not the only fluid involved. In both systems, filtration, extraction, enrichment, and in general some "treatment" of the fluid itself is the primary function. The study of the systemic circulation has also been conventionally limited to treating the system as if it were an open-loop system governed by the laws of fluid mechanics alone, independent of physiological controls and regulations. This implies that system failures can be explained fully in terms of the laws of fluid mechanics, which of course is not the case. In this paper we examine the clinical implications of these issues and of the special biofluid mechanics issues involved in the lymphatic and pulmonary systems.
在人体中的流体流动领域，自从发现了全身循环系统以来，人们的研究重点一直集中在血液的输送上；但是，其他的液体和流体流动现象也普遍存在于人体中。人体中一些最吸引人的流体流动现象涉及到血液以外的其他液体和除了输送以外的其他服务——淋巴和肺部系统就是两个显著的例子。尽管在这两种情况下都涉及到输送，但这并不是它们提供的唯一服务，而且涉及到的也不仅仅是血液这一种液体。在这两个系统中，过滤、提取、浓缩，以及通常对液体本身的“处理”是主要功能。对全身循环系统的研究通常也仅限于将该系统视为一个仅由流体力学定律控制的开环系统，而不考虑生理控制和调节。这意味着系统故障可以完全用流体力学定律来解释，而实际上并非如此。在本文中，我们将探讨这些问题以及涉及淋巴和肺部系统的特殊生物流体力学问题的临床意义。
