Experimental and computational studies of negative near-wall shear stress in the human aorta and its correlation with various stages of CHF

In this article, we report our in vitro observations demonstrating that reduced blood flow combined with increased heartbeat can lead to a retrograde flow adjacent to the vessel wall and thereby high negative wall shear stress over a major part of cardiac cycle. We attempt to map the correlation between the level of retrograde flow in the descending aorta and the severity of congestive heart failure (CHF), using both experimental methods and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.