Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Spatial Temporal Analysis of Fieldwise Flow in Microvasculature
Published on: November 18, 2019
Differentiating vascular pathophysiological states by objective analysis of flow dynamics
Kevin E Crutchfield1, Alexander Y Razumovsky, Charles H Tegeler
1New Health Sciences, Inc, Rockville, MD, USA.
Insights
Dynamic Vascular Analysis (DVA) objectively classifies cerebrovascular conditions by analyzing flow velocity, acceleration, and pulsatility index. This method aids in understanding disease pathophysiology and monitoring patient vascular performance.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Medical Imaging
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Current methods for classifying cerebrovascular conditions lack physiological objectivity.
- There is a need for improved assessment of cerebrovascular system performance.
- The study introduces Dynamic Vascular Analysis (DVA) as a novel approach.
Observation:
- A theoretical model was developed to define vascular segments based on dynamic physiological characteristics.
- DVA was applied to 847 transcranial Doppler studies to establish reference ranges.
- The method was tested on two clinical cases with progressive diseases.
Findings:
- Theoretical analysis identified over 295,000 possible vascular states.
- DVA revealed continuous, normally distributed data for velocity, pulsatility index, and acceleration.
- The study demonstrated DVA's ability to track changes in vascular performance.
Implications:
- DVA offers an objective method for evaluating intracranial vascular segments.
- This approach can be used to study cerebrovascular pathophysiology.
- DVA may enhance the classification, evaluation, and monitoring of cerebrovascular disorders.
Background And Purpose:
There is an unmet need to classify cerebrovascular conditions physiologically and to assess cerebrovascular system performance. The authors hypothesized that by simultaneously considering the dynamic parameters of flow velocity, acceleration, and pulsatility index (PI) (impedance) in individual Doppler spectrum waveforms, they could develop an objective method to elucidate the pathophysiology of vascular conditions and classify cerebrovascular disorders. This method, dynamic vascular analysis (DVA), is described.
Methods:
First, a theoretical model was developed to determine how any vascular segment and the ensemble of intracranial vascular segments could be defined according to its dynamic physiological characteristics. Next, the DVA method was applied to 847 anonymous serial complete clinical transcranial Doppler (TCD) studies of patients without regard for their diagnosis to ascertain actual reference ranges and the normality of the distribution curves for each dimension of the 3-parameter nomogram. The authors applied DVA to 2 clinical cases to see if they could track the changes in vascular performance of 2 known progressive diseases.
Results:
The theoretical analysis identified 295,245 possible vascular states for the ensemble of vascular segments in the cerebral circulation. When applied to clinical TCD data, DVA revealed continuous, normally distributed data for the velocity, PI, and logarithm of the acceleration.
Conclusions:
DVA is proposed as a method for monitoring the physiological state of each cerebral artery segment individually and in ensemble. DVA evaluates the relationship among acceleration (force or pressure), velocity, and PI and provides an objective means to evaluate intracranial vascular segments using the paradigm of the well-described pressure-perfusion autoregulation relationship. DVA may be used to study cerebrovascular pathophysiology and to classify, evaluate, and monitor cerebrovascular disorders or systemic disorders with cerebrovascular effects.
Related Concept Videos
Autoregulation of Blood Flow
Chemical Signaling in Autoregulation
Chemical signaling operates at the precapillary sphincter level, inciting either contraction or relaxation.
Laminar and Turbulent Flow
Eulerian and Lagrangian Flow Descriptions
The Eulerian method focuses on fixed points in space where fluid properties, such as velocity, pressure, and temperature, are observed as the fluid moves between these...
Blood Flow
Introduction to Types of Flows
Two-dimensional flow involves changes in both length and height, as seen in air...

