Currently, the impact on blood damage in biomedical devices can only be determined indirectly by experimental analysis related to the whole system. The direct measurement of mechanical induced blood damage as a result of local stress peaks and its consequences is not accomplishable yet.

Project Goal

The Goal is to gain detailed knowledge of the local cellular load and resulting blood damage inside the shear gap of a Couette system by correlation between macrosopic flow patterns and microscopic cellular migration and interaction.

Project Content

Blood rheology is examined in a time constant flow model, a Couette system, under defined conditions.  The macroscopic  as well as the microscopic blood flow will be detected by means of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Flow Imaging and Spectroscopy with in blood diluted, hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xenon.