Pulsatile Blood Flow

Hence does arise the action and function of the heart, which by pulsation it performs. [William Harvey, De Motu Cordis, 1628.]THE study of blood flow as a pulsatile phenomenon is scarcely new, but it has gained new impetus from three recent developments: the commercial production of reliable blood flowmeters, the formulation of theories appropriate to oscillatory flow in blood vessels,¹ and the increasing availability of digital computers. Studies in laboratory animals have profited from these technical advances for some time, and clinical investigation of pulsatile flow is now possible with catheter-tip flowmeters that can be used in routine cardiac . . .