THEORY FOR REGIONAL MYOCARDIAL BLOOD FLOW.

An understanding of the mechanics of blood flow in the microcirculation of the heart's left ventricle is especially relevant to the pathophysiology of myocardial ischemia a condition in which there is a mismatch between oxygen supply and demand. The innermost layers of the ventricle seem to be the most susceptible to ischemia, and since oxygen supply to the myocardium is essentially flow-limited, it is important to develop a theory for regional flow. The theoretical approach taken by the authors is to develop at the outset a continuum model, analyze its mechanical characteristics, and show how to reduce its behavior to that of a simple lumped system provided certain corrections for distributed effects are taken into account.