A numerical study on the effect of hematocrit on hemodynamic characteristics in arteriovenous graft

Stenosis at an arteriovenous graft is related with the critical ranges of hemodynamic characteristics. Hematocrit has a significant effect on the blood viscosity. During hemodialysis, hematocrit is changed by the dialysis machine. The effect of hematocrit on hemodynamic characteristics is investigated by numerical study. A multiphase non-Newtonian blood model was used to analyze the changes of hematocrit. The hematocrit of blood flows at injection needle changed 40%, 50%, and 60%. As a result, the blood viscosity increased by about 6% point. Also, the high wall shear stress region (over 3 Pa) increased about 6% point when the hematocrit at the vein anastomosis increased by about 2% point. When the hematocrit increased by 4% at the vein anastomosis, an extremely high wall shear stress region (over 7.5 Pa) increased by 3 times. Thus, the variation of hematocrit should be predicted using a multiphase blood model to avoid the critical range of wall shear stress when hematocrit changes regionally.