Non-Planar Geometry and Non-Planar-Type Flow at Sites of Arterial Curvature and Branching: Implications for Arterial Biology and Disease

There has been interest in arterial mechanics over centuries, but this has mainly been confined to the blood pressure, the volume flow rate of the blood and pulse wave propagation (see chapter by Skalak in this volume). Rindfleisch, in 1872, proposed that sites in arteries which experience ‘the full stress and impact of the blood’ are prone to atheroma. However, it is only within the past 20–30 years that interest has developed in the details of the arterial velocity field.