A new Rayleigh-type instability is proposed to explain the 'sausage-string' pattern of alternating constrictions and dilatations formed in blood vessels at high blood pressure conditions. Our theory involves the nonlinear stress-strain characteristics of the vessel wall, and provides predictions for the conditions under which the normal cylindrical geometry of a blood vessel becomes unstable. The theory explains key features observed experimentally, e.g. the limited occurrence of the sausage-string pattern to small arteries and large arterioles, and only in those with small wall-to-lumen
ratios.
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