Hemodynamic simulation of vertebral artery stenosis treated by stents with different links / 医用生物力学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the hemodynamic effect of stents with different types of links on treating vertebral artery stenosis, and provide scientific guidelines for the design of stent structure and the clinical procedure of stent intervention. Methods Models of vertebral artery with stenosis and three kinds of stents with different types of links (named as L-stent, V-stent and S-stentaccording to the shapes) were constructed by using Pro/Engineering. The expansions of these stents in the stenotic vertebral artery were simulated using ABAQUS, and three finite element models of the stented vertebral artery were then established for fluid flow analysis, and hemodynamic simulation was performed using ANSYS-CFX. Results Compared with V-link and S-link stent, L-link stent had smaller area of low wall shear stress distributions and smaller blood stagnation area. Conclusions With better hemodynamic effect, L-stent can potentially reduce the possibility of in-stent restenosis and provide scientific references for the choice of stent, the design of stent structure and surgical planning of stent intervention.