Finite Element Study on Influence of Stent Deployment upon Mechanical Response of Coronary Artery

抄録

A stent is a small medical device that is used to open the stenosed artery for securing blood flow. Since the stent has higher rigidity than the blood vessel, the stent deployment may induce stress concentration and damage on the vessel wall and may cause restenosis or thrombosis. In order to reduce the risk, it is important to understand the mechanical response occurring in the artery by the stent placement. In the present study, we performed the axisymmetric finite element analysis, in which the stent was modeled as rigid struts while the three-layered coronary artery was modeled according to the mechanical properties reported by Holzapfel et al., and then, the influences of the strut cross-sectional shape, the strut width, and the distance between struts on the deformation and the stress in the artery were investigated. The results revealed that the large stress was generated in the intima in the vicinity of the intima-media interface by the movement of the strut. It was found that the deformation and the maximum stress were more influenced by the distance between the struts than the cross-section shape and the strut width. The findings will be utilized to optimize the strut shape as well as the strut arrangement on designing the stent.