Reaction-diffusion waves of blood coagulation

TL;DR

This paper models blood coagulation as reaction-diffusion waves, analyzing their existence, stability, and speed, and introduces a simplified model with analytical wave speed estimates that align with complex models and experimental data.

Contribution

It presents a mathematical analysis of thrombin wave propagation in blood coagulation, including a simplified model with analytical wave speed estimates.

Findings

Analytical formulas accurately estimate wave speed.

Simplified model captures main features of thrombin wave.

Results align with experimental data.

Abstract

One of the main characteristics of blood coagulation is the speed of clot growth. This parameter strongly depends on the speed of propagation of the thrombin concentration in blood plasma. In the current work we consider mathematical model of the coagulation cascade and study the existence, stability and speed of propagation of the reaction-diffusion waves of blood coagulation. We also develop a simplified one equation model that describes the main features of the thrombin wave propagation. For this equation we estimate the wave speed analytically. The resulting formulas give a good approximation for the speed of wave propagation in a more complex model as well as for the experimental data.