Mathematical model of blood coagulation during endovenous laser therapy

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple mathematical model of blood coagulation during endovenous laser therapy, showing how heating accelerates thrombin production and fibrin formation, which can help understand thrombotic complications.

Contribution

A novel diffusion-based point model of blood coagulation during ELT that quantifies the effects of heating on thrombin and fibrin formation.

Findings

Heating increases thrombin production rate.

Rapid fibrin network formation with smaller cell size.

Model provides quantitative dependence on rheological parameters.

Abstract

Endovenous laser therapy (ELT) as a minimally invasive procedure for ablation of large superficial veins, nevertheless, can cause complications of thrombotic nature. In this regard, the study of the main patterns of thrombus formation during ELT and modelling of endovenous heat-induced thrombosis (EHIT) is relevant. Based on the assumption of diffusion limiting of biochemical processes occurring during the coagulation of blood, by recalculating the reaction rates according to the Stokes-Einstein equation, a simple point model of blood coagulation during ELT was built in this paper. As a result of the use of this model, it was demonstrated that blood heating entails an increase in the rate of thrombin production, a decrease in the time for achieving the peak of its concentration by 5-6 times with its almost constant amplitude. Heating leads to the rapid formation of fibrin clusters and the appearance of a fibrin-polymer network with a smaller cell size. The quantitative dependence on the selected rheological model was also shown. All the data necessary for using the model are given in this article for reproducibility.