Progression of Diabetic Capillary Occlusion: A Model
Fig 14
(CASE 1) Flow-Oxygen phase diagram of 362 replicate simulations.
Flow-Oxygen phase diagram describes how total volume inflow rate and oxygen tension evolve with time in all replicate simulations. Color represents simulation stages where bluish circles stand for early stages and reddish ones correspond to later stages. (A) Many simulations show clustering of flow-oxygen states through all monitored time points. Those clusters, quite close to the equilibrium state under normal condition, remained overlapped post the first occlusion. On the contrary, a few simulations displayed a scattered pattern of flow-oxygen states near the end of the simulation with either reduced flow or oxygen tension or both. (B) Temporal trajectories of the scattered points shown in A whose states had either less than 75% initial inflow rate or oxygen tension in year 3, were considered progressive. Simulations that lead to the most severe propagation of capillary occlusions tend to end with both lower than normal flow rates and lower oxygen tension.