Simulation of heparin distribution in an injured coronary artery

Nowadays the use of Drug Eluting Stents (DESs) is considered as a successful method for the treatment of coronary artery blockage. In order to study the impact of the presence of topcoat on heparin-eluting stents efficacy, two designs (with and without drug free topcoat) have been compared to each other. Moreover, here the importance of the plasma flow as a controversial topic among researchers has been studied. In order to closer to reality heart working, plasma flow is considered as a pulsatile fashion. Also, the injury of the coronary artery penetrated to a depth of media layer during angioplasty. Volume-averaged porous media equations which describe the drug release dynamics are employed and solved numerically by Finite Volume Method (FVM). Results put the amount of strut penetration in the forefront of importance. Local drug pharmacokinetics experiences significant changes by strut passing through endothelium, intima and Internal Elastic Lamina (IEL) and being contiguous with media layer. Although the plasma flow decreases/increases the amount of concentration level and subsequently decreases/increases the amount of drug mass in media/adventitia layer, but the results show that these effects are not significant. Among other findings, it is notable that the presence of topcoat has a negligible effect on the release characteristics.