Bending of a Stented Atherosclerotic Artery

H.C. Wong[1], K.N. Cho[1], and W.C. Tang[1]

[1]Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, California, USA
Published in 2009

Atherosclerosis causes the deposition of plaque on the inner walls of arteries, which leads to restricted blood flow. Using the balloon angioplasty procedure, stents can be inserted and expanded in the atherosclerotic artery. We used COMSOL Multiphysics Structural Mechanics, Solid Stress-Strain module to perform static, large deformation analyses. Our results show that lower stent stresses were obtained as the spacing between the stents was increased. This specialized stent design could prove to be optimal for use in arteries that undergo significant bending, such as the superficial femoral artery.

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