Hemodynamics of stented coronary arteries: Experimental and numerical investigations

Abstract

Low wall shear stress inside the stented arteries results in endothelial cell changes and increases the chance of restenosis. Understanding the effects of a stent design on the flow behaviour especially near the artery wall can lead to choosing or designing more hemodynamically compatible stents that can reduce the chances of in-stent restenosis inside the stented arteries. In this study, the effect of the stent pattern on the wall shear stress of a coronary artery is investigated for four models of stents to identify the locations of low wall shear stress. A computational fluid dynamics model, validated against the particle image velocimetry experiments, is developed to calculate flow field..