Relationship between hyperaemic response and viscoelastic properties in the coronary circulation of the dog

A sudden reduction in perfusion pressure evokes a transient hyperaemic response in the coronary arteries of anaesthetized dogs; its characteristics depend on the vasomotor tone. A heuristic model, which mimics the vascular bed with a lumped second-order system on the lines of the well-known Windkessel model, but accounting for the blood inertia, is proposed to describe that response and to quantify the viscoelastic properties of the system.