Evaluation of a Simple Cardiovascular Model with the Short-Term Baroreflex

A simple cardiovascular (CV) model along with the baroreflex function was used to simulate key hemodynamic variables in response to various activity levels. The CV model consists of two compliance chambers as the left atrium and systemic artery, a variable resistor as the systemic vascular resistance, and a current source as the pumping mechanism of the heart. The baroreflex detects the systemic arterial pressure (PSA) changes to adjust heart rate, ventricular contractility, and systemic resistance, and thus regulate PSA. Activity level of the system was varied from resting to heavy exercise in computer simulation. Hemodynamic variables from this simulation under different activity settings agreed with the changes of the same variables from a complex model. This result supports that the simple model with the baroreflex function can simulate the key hemodynamic variables under different activity levels. This model will be implemented as a mock circulatory loop to include the baroreflex function in the loop in the future.