The effects of implanting different stents on the blood hemodynamic in coronary arteries

Abstract

Stent implantation alters coronary artery hemodynamic and wall shear stress during cardiac cycles. In this study, three dimensional models were used to analyze the effects of different stent designs and strut thicknesses on the hemodynamic of the artery. The flow was assumed to be pulsatile and stent models were expanded in the artery the same as angioplasty procedure that uses balloon. The data was applied to Fluent-ANSYS package as a UDF MATLAB code. A non-slip condition was applied to the artery walls. The pressure variation in different stents and the wall shear stress distribution were studied. Furthermore, the hemodynamic effects on the flow were investigated for two different thickness values of the same stent design. These results showed that stent implanting is one of the main parameters of pressure drop in the artery. Moreover, the surface of the stent is the location of maximum wall shear stress and the thicker stent strut did not vary this stress much. Our study implies that some design parameters such as thickness affect the hemodynamic factors of blood after stent implantation. Even, stent implanting cause re stenosis in the coronary artery. Using new real models is suggested to investigate the new aspects of stent design and related effects on the hemodynamic of coronary arteries.