Hemodynamics in coronary arteries with overlapping stents

Abstract

Coronary artery stenosis is commonly treated by stent placement via percutaneous intervention, at times requiring multiple stents that may overlap. Stent overlap is associated with increased risk of adverse clinical outcome. While changes in local blood flow are suspected to play a role therein, hemodynamics in arteries with overlapping stents remain poorly understood. In this study we analyzed six cases of partially overlapping stents, placed ex vivo in porcine left coronary arteries and compared them to five cases with two non-overlapping stents. The stented vessel geometries were obtained by micro-computed tomography of corrosion casts. Flow and shear stress distribution were calculated u..