Main description:

Blood microcirculation is essential to our bodies for the successful supply of nutrients, waste removal, oxygen delivery, homeostasis, controlling temperature, wound healing, and active immune surveillance. This book provides a physical introduction to the subject and explores how researchers can successfully describe, understand, and predict behaviours of blood flow and blood cells that are directly linked to these important physiological functions. Using practical examples, this book explains how the key concepts of physics are related to blood microcirculation and underlie the dynamic behavior of red blood cells, leukocytes, and platelets. This interdisciplinary book will be a valuable reference for researchers and graduate students in biomechanics, fluid mechanics, biomedical engineering, biological physics, and medicine.

Features:

The first book to provide a physical perspective of blood microcirculation

Draws attention to the potential of this physical approach for novel applications in medicine

Edited by specialists in this field, with chapter contributions from subject area specialists

Contents:

1. Blood in Flow. Basic Concepts. 2. Dynamics of Suspensions of Rigid Particles. 3. Blood as a Suspension of Defomable Particles. 4. Microstructure and Rheology of Cellular Blood Flow, Platelet Margination and Adhesion. 5. Single Red Blood Cell Dynamics in Shear Flow and their Role in Hemorheology. 6. Aggregation and Blood Flow in Health and Disease. 7. Platelet Dynamics and Behaviour in Blood Flow. 8. Blood Suspenison in a Network. 9. White Blood Cell Dynamics in Micro-flows. 10. Inertial Microfluidics and its Application in Hematology. 11. Microfluidic Biotechnologies for Hematology. 12. Blood Suspensions in Animals