Abstract
Pipeline flow diversion stent is often placed in a tortuous anatomy. Nevertheless, effect of parent artery curvature on the flow diversion effect from pipeline stent is poorly understood. We evaluated the flow diversion effect of pipeline in various parent artery curvatures and angle of incidence in in-vitro models. Four acrylic prototypes of curved tube with a side branch were constructed with circular cross section with the inner diameter of 3.8 mm. The radius of curvature R (R=25mm & 50mm), and the relative angle 0 of the side branch (θ=60, 90, & 120) were varied. The identical pipeline of diameter 4.75mm were placed to each prototype and the pressure loss occurring in the flow through the pipeline mesh was measured for the Reynolds numbers ranging from 100 to 800. The comparison with the computational study indicated that the parent artery curvature and angle of incidence are important parameters that may affect the efficacy of Pipeline.
