Hemodynamic analysis of capillary in finger nail-fold using computational fluid dynamics and image estimation

Red blood cell (RBC) dynamics in capillaries is a useful diagnostic tool for many diseases. Previous study showed that optical flow estimation (OFE) is capable of accurately calculating RBC velocities using image registration technique. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is explored in this study to calculate the RBC velocity in capillaries of finger nail-fold for six cases. The two-dimensional capillary images were reconstructed to three-dimensional, assuming circular cross sections. The no-slip boundary conditions were applied on the vessel walls. The initial velocity of the RBC going into each capillary was calculated by OFE. The velocities of multiple points along each capillary calculated by CFD, V(CFD), were compared with OFE calculations, V(OFE). The calculated RBC velocity was in the range of 56-685μm/s. The average difference (V(CFD) - V(OFE)) with one standard deviation is -2.66±18.61μm/s for all the 48 calculation points, and 0.03±0.12μm/s for all except one points (47 points), indicating that CFD can provide a reasonable accuracy in RBC velocity calculation in finger nail-fold capillaries.