Balloon Catheter-Integrated Piezoelectric Micropyramid Arrays for Measuring Vascular Stiffness.

Atherosclerosis is one of the severe cardiovascular diseases in which blood vessels lose elasticity and the lumen narrows. If atherosclerosis worsens, it commonly leads to acute coronary syndrome (ACS) due to the rupture of vulnerable plaque or aortic aneurysm. As the mechanical properties of vascular tissues vary from their conditions, measuring the vascular stiffness of an inner blood vessel wall may be applied to the accurate diagnosis of atherosclerotic symptoms.

Highly flexible and porous silk fibroin microneedle wraps for perivascular drug delivery.

Various perivascular drug delivery techniques have been demonstrated for localized post-treatment of intimal hyperplasia: a vascular inflammatory response caused by endothelial damages. Although most perivascular devices have focused on controlling the delivery duration of anti-proliferation drug, the confined and unidirectional delivery of the drug to the target tissue has become increasingly important. In addition, careful attention should also be paid to the luminal stability and the adequate exchange of vascular protein or cell between the blood vessel and extravascular tissue to avoid any side effect from the long-term application of any perivascular device.