Circulatory System- Comprised of the heart, blood vessels and blood. Its function is to distribute oxygen and nutrients to cells, transport CO2 and wastes from the cells, regulate the body temperature, form blood clots, and maintain an acid-base balance.
Cardiovascular- Of the heart and circulatory system.
Cardiac- Of the heart.
Vascular Resistance- Often thought of as a localized rather than distributed variable.
Application- The scientific problem of interest and the components of that problem which we wish to study and/or include.
Algorithm- The numerical/mathematical representation of a problem, including any numerical method or recipe used to solve the problem.
Architecture- The computing platform and software tool(s) used to compute a solution set for the algorithm(s) developed.
Blood Flow- The quantity of blood that passes a given point in the circulation in a given period.
Compliance- The total quantity of blood that can be stored in a given portion of the circulation.
Resistance- The impediment to blood flow in a vessel, but it cannot be measured by any direct means. Instead, resistance must be calculated from measurements of blood flow and pressure difference in the vessel.
The Windkessel Model- An elastic bag. A model that indicates the blood flow, compliance, and resistance among the four compartments.
Sine Wave- The ratio of the length of a side opposite one of the acute angles to the length of the hypotenuse.
Conductance- A measure of the blood flow through a vessel for a given pressure difference.
Venous Return- The quantity of blood flowing from the veins into the right atrium each minute. The venous return and the cardiac output must be equal to each other.
Peripheral- Of the surface or outer part of a body or organ.
Total Peripheral Resistance- The resistance of the entire systemic circulation.