Numerical modelling of the physical factors that affect mass transport in the vasculature at early time periods.

Coronary artery disease results in blockages or narrowing of the artery lumen. Drug eluting stents were developed to replace bare metal stents in an effort to combat re-blocking of the lumen. A key element in determining the therapeutic success of a drug eluting stent is an in-depth understanding of the physical factors that affect mass transport of the drug into the arterial wall, over early time periods.

Numerical modelling of mass transport in an arterial wall with anisotropic transport properties.

Coronary artery disease results in blockages or narrowing of the artery lumen. Drug eluting stents (DES) were developed to replace bare metal stents in an effort to combat re-blocking of the diseased artery following treatment. The numerical models developed within this study focus on representing the changing trends of drug delivery from an idealised DES in an arterial wall with an anisotropic ultra-structure.

Improving smooth muscle cell exposure to drugs from drug-eluting stents at early time points: a variable compression approach.

The emergence of drug-eluting stents (DES) as a viable replacement for bare metal stenting has led to a significant decrease in the incidence of clinical restenosis. This is due to the transport of anti-restenotic drugs from within the polymer coating of a DES into the artery wall which arrests the cell cycle before restenosis can occur. The efficacy of DES is still under close scrutiny in the medical field as many issues regarding the effectiveness of DES drug transport in vivo still exist.

An analysis of three dimensional diffusion in a representative arterial wall mass transport model.

The development and use of drug eluting stents has brought about significant improvements in reducing in-stent restenosis, however, their long term presence in the artery is still under examination due to restenosis reoccurring. Current studies focus mainly on stent design, coatings and deployment techniques but few studies address the issue of the physics of three dimensional mass transport in the artery wall. There is a dearth of adequate validated numerical mass transport models that simulate the physics of diffusion dominated drug transport in the artery wall whilst under compression.