title: Experimental and computational study of mechanical and transport properties of a polymer coating for drug-eluting stents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Experimental and computational characterizations in the preclinical development of biomedical devices are complementary and can significantly help in a thorough analysis of the performances before clinical evaluation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Here mechanical and drug delivery properties of a polymer platform, ad hoc prepared to obtain coatings for drug-eluting stents, is reported; polymer formulation and starting drug loading were varied to study the behavior of the platform; a finite element model was constructed starting from experimental data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Different platform formulations affected mechanical and drug transport properties; these properties can be fine tuned by varying the starting platform formulation. Finite element analysis allowed visualizing drug distribution maps over time in biological tissues for different commercial stents and polymer platform formulations.
authors.affiliation: Center for Micro-BioRobotics @SSSA, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, viale Rinaldo Piaggio, 34, 56025 Pontedera, Italy.
authors.forename: Mariacristina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gagliardi
mesh_terms: D001682:Biological Availability; D003198:Computer Simulation; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D065546:Drug Liberation; D054855:Drug-Eluting Stents; D006801:Humans; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000097:blood / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D019904:Polymethyl Methacrylate / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: C000610687:poly(methylmethacrylate-co-n-butylmethacrylate); D019904:Polymethyl Methacrylate; D017239:Paclitaxel