• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.601-607
• /
• 2012

In this study, we performed computational fluid dynamic simulations to explore how the detailed design of drug-eluting stents affects both the flow field in the vicinity of the stent as well as the concentration of the eluted drug at the endothelial cell surface. Simulations were performed on three idealized stent geometries we developed and on geometries approximating three commercial stents,: Medtronic's Aurora stent, Cordis's BX Velocity stent, and Boston Scientific's Wallstent. An important contribution of the present study is the introduction of the stent effectiveness index (EI), which provides a quantitative assessment of stent performance and an objective basis for comparing the performance of different stents. Among the three commercial stents studied, our simulations have revealed that the BX Velocity stent is associated with the lowest in-stent EI values for the range of flow Reynolds numbers studied ($200{\leq}Re{\leq}800$). In addition to commercial stent designs, we investigated the EI in three idealized stents and determined that a spiral stent provides excellent performance (low EI) under all flow conditions investigated.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.35 no.10
• /
• pp.1053-1060
• /
• 2011

This study is performed to determine the drug concentration profiles of drug-eluting stents (DES) for an ideal circular ring stent and intertwined stent models for various Reynolds numbers (Re = 200, 400, and 800). The Navier.Stokes equations coupled with the advection-diffusion equation are solved numerically in order to determine how the flow patterns and drug deposition are affected in the in-stent and post-stent regions where flow separation and recirculation occur. The presence of DES within the arterial segment affects the local drug distribution in the flow field. As a result, the drug concentration for the intertwined stent is higher over the in-stent region in comparison with the ideal stents. For a given stent geometry, the local drug concentration in the in-stent region decreases with Reynolds number, while for a given Reynolds number, the local drug concentration is relatively insensitive to the stent geometry. The results show that drug concentration along the arterial wall is significantly higher within the in-stent and post-stent regions for the intertwined stent geometry than for the ideal stent geometries.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.31 no.1 s.256
• /
• pp.21-28
• /
• 2007

The use of drug-eluting stents has dramatically reduced the incidence of restenosis however, much remains to be teamed about the performance of these stouts. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the design of drug-eluting stents influences the efficacy of local drug delivery to the arterial wall and that this effect depends on both arterial geometry and the prevailing flow conditions. We performed computational simulations in which the coupled Navier-Stokes and advection-diffusion equations were solved to determine the flow field and drug concentration in the vicinity of model drug-eluting stouts It is found that the characteristics of flow phenomena can be influenced greatly by the ratio of stent diameter to vessel diameter. The presence of drug-eluting stent may have profound effect on wall shear stresses, recirculation sizes and drug distributions. The results show that recirculation zone is influenced by the imposed flow conditions and stent diameter. In pulsatile flow, the low wall shear stress and high drug concentration occur along the arterial wall during the decelerating flow conditions. These results could provide the guideline for future drug-eluting stent designs toward reducing restenosis by affecting local wall shear stress distributions associated with neointimal hyperplasia.