Table 1.

Typical range of wall shear rates and stresses^*

Blood vessel	Mean wall shear rate (/s)	Mean wall shear stress (dyn/cm2)**
Large arteries	300–800	13.5–36
Arterioles	450–1,600	20.2–72
Veins	15–200	0.7–9
Stenotic vessels	800–10,000	36–450

^*Values presented are mean values for indicated vessels. Higher flows can be locally observed and these can also be enhanced during human pathologies

^**Shear stress (τ) = viscosity (μ) · shear rate (γ) with blood viscosity = 0.045 poise.