Expansion and drug elution model of a coronary stent.

The present study illustrates a possible methodology to investigate drug elution from an expanded coronary stent. Models based on finite element method have been built including the presence of the atherosclerotic plaque, the artery and the coronary stent. These models take into account the mechanical effects of the stent expansion as well as the effect of drug transport from the expanded stent into the arterial wall.

Effect of continuous arterial blood flow in patients with rotary cardiac assist device on the washout of a stenosis wake in the carotid bifurcation: a computer simulation study.

In recipients of rotary blood pumps for cardiac assist, the pulsatility of arterial flow is considerably diminished. This influences the shear stress patterns and streamlines in the arterial bed, with potential influence on washout and plaque growth. These effects may be aggravated in the recirculation area of stenoses, and therefore, exclude patients with atherosclerosis from the therapy with these devices.

The non-circular shape of FloWatch-PAB prevents the need for pulmonary artery reconstruction after banding. Computational fluid dynamics and clinical correlations.

Objective: To evaluate the differences between non-circular shape of FloWatch-PAB and conventional pulmonary artery (PA) banding.

Methods: Geometrical analysis. Conventional banding and FloWatch-PAB perimeters were plotted against cross-sections.

Mathematical and numerical models for transfer of low-density lipoproteins through the arterial walls: a new methodology for the model set up with applications to the study of disturbed lumenal flow.

In this work we introduce and discuss several mathematical models, based on partial differential equations, devised to study the coupled transport of macromolecules as low-density lipoproteins in the blood stream and in the arterial walls. These models are accurate provided that a suitable set of physical parameters characterizing the physical properties of the molecules and of the wall layers are available. Here we turn our attention on this aspect, and propose a new methodology to compute the physical parameters needed for the model set up, starting from available in vivo measurements.

Influence of curvature dynamics on pulsatile coronary artery flow in a realistic bifurcation model.

The coronary arteries undergo large dynamic variations during each cardiac cycle due to their position on the beating heart. The local artery curvature varies significantly. In this study the influence of dynamic curvature on coronary artery hemodynamics is analyzed numerically.