title: Understanding the requirements of self-expandable stents for heart valve replacement: Radial force, hoop force and equilibrium.
abstract: A proper interpretation of the forces developed during stent crimping and deployment is of paramount importance for a better understanding of the requirements for successful heart valve replacement. The present study combines experimental and computational methods to assess the performance of a nitinol stent for tissue-engineered heart valve implantation. To validate the stent model, the mechanical response to parallel plate compression and radial crimping was evaluated experimentally. Finite element simulations showed good agreement with the experimental findings. The computational models were further used to determine the hoop force on the stent and radial force on a rigid tool during crimping and self-expansion. In addition, stent deployment against ovine and human pulmonary arteries was simulated to determine the hoop force on the stent-artery system and the equilibrium diameter for different degrees of oversizing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Group of Soft Tissue Biomechanics & Tissue Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, De Rondom 70. PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Electronic address: m.s.cabrera@tue.nl.
authors.forename: María Sol
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Cabrera
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Group of Soft Tissue Biomechanics & Tissue Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, De Rondom 70. PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cees W J
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Oomens
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Group of Soft Tissue Biomechanics & Tissue Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, De Rondom 70. PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Frank P T
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Baaijens
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006351:Heart Valves; D006801:Humans; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D011651:Pulmonary Artery; D012756:Sheep; D015607:Stents; D023822:Tissue Engineering
keywords: finite element modeling; human pulmonary artery; nitinol stent; ovine pulmonary artery; radial force; self-expandable