Functional and Metrological Issues in Arterial Simulators for Biomedical Testing Applications: A Review

Abstract

Arterial simulators are a useful tool to simulate the cardiovascular system in many different fields of application and to carry out in vitro tests that would constitute a danger when performed in in vivo conditions. In the literature, a thriving series of in vitro experimental set-up examples can be found. Nevertheless, in the current scientific panorama on this topic, it seems that organic research from a metrological and functional perspective is still lacking. In this regard, the present review study aims to make a contribution by analyzing and classifying the main concerns for the cardiovascular simulators proposed in the literature from a metrological and functional point of view, according to their field of application, as well as for the transducers in the arterial experimental set-ups, measuring the main hemodynamic quantities in order to study their trends in specific testing conditions and to estimate some parameters or indicators of interest for the scientific community.