Drug Deposition for Drug-eluting Coronary Stents: Pulsatile vs Poiseuille Blood Flows

Previous numerical studies have demonstrated that drug absorption in stented arteries can be improved by the blood flow patterns surrounding drug-eluting stents. However, these studies employed steady-state simulations, wherein flow and drug transport parameters remained constant concerning time. In this study using the computational fluid dynamics method, the transient simulations were employed. For this purpose, the pulsatile inlet flow rate was used for simulating the blood flow in a stented coronary artery and the inferences, including hemodynamics and drug transport parameters, have been compared with the steady flow results. Furthermore, to consider the impact of blood velocity, the results were examined for two different Reynolds numbers. The simulations showed that despite flow sensibility to the pulsatility of the flow, it moderately influences drug uptake. Specifically, the average drug uptake in tissue exhibited a maximum change of ۶ percent when comparing pulsatile blood flow against Poiseuille flow. However, decreasing the Reynolds number up to a third can lead to a ۱۵ percent increase in average drug concentration in artery tissue.