title: Assessment of tissue prolapse after balloon-expandable stenting: influence of stent cell geometry.
abstract: Restenosis is a re-narrowing or blockage of an artery at the same site where treatment, such as a balloon angioplasty or stent procedure, has already taken place. Several clinical trials have shown a significant reduction in the restenosis rates with endovascular stenting. The purpose of stenting is to maintain the arterial lumen open by a scaffolding action that provides radial support. However, stenting can cause a vascular injury during the deployment. Indeed, in-stent restenosis remains a major problem in percutaneous coronary intervention, requiring patients to undergo repeated procedures and surgery. The loading imposed by the deployment of the stent on the artery is involved in the restenosis process. Furthermore, it is well known that the stent design plays a role in the outcome of the stenting interventional procedure. This study compares the mechanical effects of the expansion of five different designs of balloon-expandable stents in a coronary artery by means of numerical models based on the finite element method. An index for the evaluation of the tissue prolapse based on the expanded configuration reached by the stent cells is proposed. The effects of the balloon inflation and deflation are included in the present study. Wall stresses and tissue prolapse of the vessel wall within the stent cells are evaluated and compared among the different stent designs. Results show that the printed area does not predict prolapse, and that the proposed index (PI) does correlate with tissue prolapse.
authors.affiliation: Politecnico di Milano, Department of Structural Engineering, Laboratory of Biological Structure Mechanics, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Capelli
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gervaso
authors.forename: Lorenza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petrini
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dubini
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Migliavacca
mesh_terms: D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002404:Catheterization / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D023903:Coronary Restenosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015607:Stents / Q000009:adverse effects*