Network model to study physiological processes of hypobaric decompression sickness: New numerical results

Abstract

We have studied decompression processes when pressure changes that take place, in blood and tissues using a technical numerical based in electrical analogy of the parameters that involved in the problem. The particular problem analyzed is the behavior dynamics of the extravascular bubbles formed in the intercellular cavities of a hypothetical tissue undergoing decompression. Numerical solutions are given for a system of equations to simulate gas exchanges of bubbles after decompression, with particular attention paid to the effect of bubble size, nitrogen tension, nitrogen diffusivity in the intercellular fluid and in the tissue cell layer in a radial direction, nitrogen solubility, ambient pressure and specific blood flow through the tissue over the different molar diffusion fluxes of nitrogen per time unit (through the bubble surface, between the intercellular fluid layer and blood and between the intercellular fluid layer and the tissue cell layer). The system of nonlinear equations is solved using the Network Simulation Method, where the electric analogy is applied to convert these equations into a network-electrical model, and a computer code (electric circuit simulator, Pspice). In this paper, numerical results new (together to a network model improved with interdisciplinary electrical analogies) are provided. © 2016 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.