Effect of artery curvature on the coronary fractional flow reserve

Abstract

Understanding the effect of the artery curvature on the pressure drop inside the arteries is of great importance due to the existence of several curved portions inside the coronary arterial system. In this paper, an experimental model is developed to account for the effect of the curvature of the coronary arteries on the pressure drop and Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR). FFR is an index for the evaluation of the functional significance of coronary stenosis and is defined as the ratio of the coronary pressure downstream of the stenosis to its upstream value. To measure the pressure drop and FFR across curved artery models, three-dimensional-printed curved artery models are fabricated and instal..