Abstract
The main role of the cardiovascular (CV) system is to maintain adequate oxygenation of all tissues. This is achieved by maintaining blood flow and pressure at a fairly constant level. An important contributor to the short-term CV control is the baroreflex, which uses specialized neurons, called baroreceptors, that are activated using mechanosensitive sensors located in the aortic arch and carotid sinuses. In this talk we will discuss various mathematical techniques and approaches to construct an efficient model of baroreceptor activity. Moreover, we will also consider the problem of structural identifiability restricted to the important class of viscoelastic mechanical systems used in the CV modeling. In particular, we show how algebraic methods can be used to design a structurally identifiable model.
This work is a part of the bigger project called “The Virtual Physiological Rat Project” (http://virtualrat.org/), with objective to build and simulate the cardiovascular functions of the rat and build a validated computer models across rat strains. The ultimate goal of using mathematical and computer models is to predict the physiological characteristics of not yet realized combinations, derive those combinations in the lab, and then test the predictions