Simulation of Baroreceptors

Medical engineering is a branch of engineering that aspires to solve medical problems. One of the biggest medical problems that faces a wide range of people worldwide is the condition of high blood pressure known as hypertension which affects 16 million people in the UK [1]. An engineering approach could be used to solve this problem. The human body can be modeled as group of closed control loops [2,3] with the brain playing the role of the controller in many of them. One of the important control systems that exists in the body is the blood pressure control loop. This control loop is further subdivided into two different subsystems; the main component of the first subsystem is the kidney, which controls the concentration of sodium in the blood. This leads to controlling the blood pressure level for long term control purposes. The second subsystem is the short term blood pressure control system which is the focus of this research. This biological closed control loop could be tracked through the following path: Blood pressure is sensed by a special type of cells known as Baroreceptors. They exist at the nerve ending and they act as transducers to convert pressure into voltage. The resulting feedback voltage signal is transferred in the nerve in the form of action potential (electric wave propagation) to reach the brain that acts as the controller. In order to maintain the blood pressure in its normal range, the brain takes a decision to either contract or dilate the vessel. This order is achieved by either the sympathetic or the parasympathetic nerve