Factors That Affect Mass Transport in Drug Eluding Stents into the Artery Wall

"Coronary artery disease can be treated by implanting a stent into the blocked region of an artery, thus enabling blood perfusion to distal vessels. Minimally invasive procedures of this nature often result in damage to the arterial tissue culminating in the re-blocking of the vessel. In an effort to alleviate this phenomenon, known as restenosis, drug eluting stents were developed. They are similar in composition to a bare metal stent but encompass a coating with therapeutic agents designed to reduce the overly aggressive healing response that contributes to restenosis. There are many variables that can influence the effectiveness of these therapeutic drugs being transported from the stent coating to and within the artery wall, many of which have been analysed and documented by researchers. However, the physical deformation of the artery substructure due to stent expansion, and its influence on a drugs ability to diffuse evenly within the artery wall have been lacking in published work to date. The paper highlights previous approaches adopted by researchers and proposes the addition of porous artery wall deformation to increase model accuracy."

I found this article interesting because of its application to our current device design project. Stents themselves have been a major breakthrough in temporarily "removing the blockage" to allow perfusion to the distal coronary arteries. In coating these stents with some form of therapeutic drugs, the utility of these stents has been exponentially increased. It allows the localization of a drug, can increase the longevity of the stent, and overall, it can buy more time for the patient before the restenosis of the artery.