Effects of Arterial Longitudinal Tension on Pulsatile Axial Blood Flow

By treating the arterial wall and the enclosed blood as one integrated system, a more general axial blood flow equation which includes the effect of arterial longitudinal tensions at the first step was derived. We found that longitudinal tensions not only provide the tautness needed for the radial oscillation of arterial walls, but also reduce the dissipative axial pulsatile blood motion induced by the pulse pressure. The results explain why large arteries in vivo are subjected to large longitudinal tensions. The possible benefit of body stretching exercises by reducing the local pulsatile axial blood flow was also discussed.