A Numerical Study on the Effects of Drug Ejection Velocity on Endovascular Thrombolysis

Direct injection of a fibrinolytic agent to the intraarterial thrombosis may increase the effectiveness of thrombolysis by enhancing the permeation of thrombolytic agents into the blood clot. Permeation of fibrinolytic agents into a clot is influenced by the surface pressure, which is determined by the injection velocity of fibrinolytic agents. In order to calculate the pressure distribution on the clot surface for different jet velocities (1, 3, 5 m/sec) and nozzle arrangements (1, 9, 17 nozzles), computational fluid dynamic methods were used. Thrombolysis of a clot was mathematically modeled based on the pressure and lysis front velocity relationship. Direct injection of a thrombolytic agent increased the speed of thrombolysis significantly and the effectiveness was increased as the ejecting velocity increased. The nine nozzles model showed about $20\%$ increase of the lysed volume, and the one and seventeen nozzles models did not show significant differences. The wall shear stress decreased as the number of nozzles increased, and the wall shear stress in most vessel wall was lower than 25 Pa. The results implied that thrombolysis could be accelerated by direct injection of a drug with the moderate velocity without damaging the blood vessel wall.