Modeling and Analysis of Polydisperse Disseminated Bacterial Infections
David Bortz
Applied Mathematics
Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus epidermidis are the most common
causes of intravascular catheter infections. Given time, infected
devices in the bloodstream become a source of a bloodborne plume of
mediators, bacteria, and bacterial and host matrix. The dislodged
material can actually leave the catheter surface at nearly half a meter
per second, either coming to rest in a microvascular debris field in the
lung or passing through into the arterial circulation. Our current
model for the dynamics of the size-structured population of aggregates
in a flowing system is based on the Smoluchowski coagulation equations.
In this talk, I will discuss the progress of several investigations into
properties of our model equations. In particular, I will focus on a)
the relationship between multiple bacterial phenotypes and the apparent
"waves" in the time-series distributions, b) a derivation of an
alternative fragmentation kernel in lamninar flow, and c) (time
permitting) aggregation and fragmentation properties which predict
persistence of capillary-sized aggregates