Mass transport may play a significant role in the development of atherosclerosis, a progressive disease of the artery wall. In this work, advection-dominated transport of blood-borne components such as oxygen and ATP is considered in two arterial models with mild (56% area reduction) stenoses, representative of the early stages of disease development. Flow and mass transport patterns in a symmetric stenosis are contrasted with those in an asymmetric model. The complex flow field due to the asymmetric stenosis (which is a more realistic representation of the diseased arteries) resulted in mass transfer patterns substantially different than those exhibited by the axisymmetric stenosis. This implies that accurate representation of arterial geometries is essential when the link between mass transfer and atherosclerosis is sought. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.