Introduction:

The evaluation of vascular reactivity (VR) is done by the hyperemic response after ischemia produced by arterial occlusion. There are VR measurement techniques that allow the evaluation of vascular function at lower cost and without dependence on the operator, but they are in development and require validation and clinical acceptance.

Objective:

To model vascular mechanics computationally in order to evaluate the performance of a VR technique.

Materials and methods:

The electrical model of the vasculature of the arm was modified, obtaining the peripheral volume with and without brachial artery occlusion. A computational identification, which relates the peripheral volume to the results of a VR evaluation technique and presents color changes in the occluded hand during reactive hyperemia, was performed. The software used was Matlab®.

Results:

The modified model allowed to obtain the peripheral volume with and without occlusion, representing the perfusion in the microvasculature. The Hammerstein-Weiner non-linear model was the best descriptor of color changes depending on the dynamics of the vascular system and it presented an average adjustment percentage of 95.69%.

Conclusions:

It is possible to model computationally the technique of evaluation of vascular function using nonlinear identification.

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