Abstract
Intravascular treatment is the one of low-invasive treatments. Using the wire-like devices, an operator delivers the tip of devices to a lesion through blood vessel with complex curves. But the methodology to learn this delivery technique is not established sufficiently because there is not enough knowledge about the behavior of the wire-like devices in blood vessel. To clear the behavior of the devices from the perspective of mechanics may contribute to improve the efficiency of education and training for operators. In this paper, the numerical simulation was performed to investigate the motion of guidewire in vessel models with a curve. Guidewire and vessel with various flexion angles were modeled by spring and rigid body. For contact problem between guidewire and vessel models, penalty method was used. The effect of the flexion angles of guidewire and vessel models on the contact force was investigated. In the case of the guidewire with small flexion angle (<15 deg), the maximum contact force was higher regardless of vessel flexion angle. In combination of the guidewires with 30-60 degree and the vessel with 30-90 degree, the variety of maximum contact force was small (0.125-0.240 N). These results may suggest that there is the lower limit of guidewire flexion angle. In inserting the vessel model with highest flexion angle (105 degree), the contact force between guidewire and vessel model often exceeded constraint force of guidewire. This result suggests that, when an operator passes a guidewire through curved vessel with large flexion angle, he cannot estimate contact force on vessel wall from the force information which he senses on his fingertip.
