The Effects on the Flow Rate, as a Representation of Stroke Volume and Cardiac Output, and Pressure on a Model Heart wit

CSEF · 2005 Mammalian Biology

Overview

Objectives/Goals the effects on the flow rate, as a representation of stroke volume and cardiac output, and pressure on a model heart with progressive atherosclerosis in comparison to that of a normal heart. Methods/Materials To test this experiment, a model heart was designed. A peristaltic pump was used as the main pump to circulate the blood through the tubing connected to the water bottles, and the chambers. In this model heart, the left side of the heart, the left atrium and ventricle, was the primary focus, in that this side of the heart is responsible for systemic circulation and therefore any atherosclerosis in the arteries connecting it to other parts of the body would affect the blood pressure and flow rate the most. As the water was circulated through the system a pressure meter recorded the pressure of the water exiting the tube. The water exiting the tube per minute was recorded from the reading on a graduated cylinder. To represent progressive atherosclerosis, four different orifice diameters were used. Results The results from the experiment the experiment supported most of what was hypothesized. The mean flow rate (mL/min) was 371±2.33mL/min for the original tubing that represented a normal heart and decreased only about 1.09% to the pinhole diameter opening. The average percent increase for the pressure of water exiting the system from the original diameter to the pinhole diameter was 143%. The results were fairly precise, with an average percent deviation for the flow rate of about 0.454% and an average percent deviation for the pressure to be about 0.480%. Conclusions/Discussion The results correlated with background research in the sense that the slow decrease in the flow rate could be supported by the design of peristaltic pump to be similar to way the heart functions. The heart has a strong ability to overcome up to about 40-50% occlusion in the arteries, by enlarging, to pump the same amount of blood. The pressure of someone with progressive atherosclerotic heart disease is on average higher than those with mild to no atherosclerosis.

Summary statement

A model heart was designed to better understand how progressive atherosclerosis affects the blood pressure and heart rate

Help received

Mr. Sorenson provided me with equipment to test my experiments

Competition history

  • CSEF 2005 Mammalian Biology · Entry S1010

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google