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Updated: May 2, 2026
Optical Coherence Tomography Based Biomechanical Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis of Coronary Atherosclerosis Progression
Published on: January 15, 2022
On the necessity of modelling fluid-structure interaction for stented coronary arteries
Claudio Chiastra1, Francesco Migliavacca1, Miguel Ángel Martínez2
1Laboratory of Biological Structure Mechanics (LaBS), Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta", Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Insights
Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis shows that assuming a rigid arterial wall in computational fluid dynamics simulations for stented coronary arteries is adequate for assessing wall shear stress (WSS). This finding simplifies future hemodynamic studies of in-stent restenosis (ISR).
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cardiovascular Research
- Computational Fluid Dynamics
Background:
- In-stent restenosis (ISR) is a major complication following coronary stenting.
- Altered hemodynamics and abnormal shear stresses due to stent presence contribute to ISR.
- Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to study hemodynamics and wall shear stress (WSS) in stented vessels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of arterial wall compliance on hemodynamic quantities in stented coronary arteries using fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analyses.
- To compare FSI results with traditional rigid-wall models.
- To evaluate the impact of stent material (cobalt-chromium and poly-l-lactide) on hemodynamics.
Main Methods:
- Performed fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations of stented coronary arteries.
- Compared FSI results with rigid-wall CFD models.
- Analyzed wall shear stress (WSS) distribution for cobalt-chromium and poly-l-lactide stents.
Main Results:
- Both FSI and rigid-wall models showed similar trends in instantaneous and time-averaged WSS.
- The difference in area exposed to low time-averaged WSS (<0.4 Pa) between FSI and rigid-wall models was approximately 1.5% for cobalt-chromium and 1.0% for poly-l-lactide stents.
- The rigid-wall assumption provides adequate results for near-wall quantities like WSS in idealized stented coronary artery models.
Conclusions:
- The rigid-wall assumption in CFD simulations is sufficient for analyzing near-wall hemodynamic quantities like WSS in idealized stented coronary arteries.
- This finding supports the continued use of simplified rigid-wall models for certain hemodynamic assessments in stented vessels.
- Future research can leverage these simplified models to further understand ISR mechanisms.
Abstract:
Although stenting is the most commonly performed procedure for the treatment of coronary atherosclerotic lesions, in-stent restenosis (ISR) remains one of the most serious clinical complications. An important stimulus to ISR is the altered hemodynamics with abnormal shear stresses on endothelial cells generated by the stent presence. Computational fluid dynamics is a valid tool for studying the local hemodynamics of stented vessels, allowing the calculation of the wall shear stress (WSS), which is otherwise not directly possible to be measured in vivo. However, in these numerical simulations the arterial wall and the stent are considered rigid and fixed, an assumption that may influence the WSS and flow patterns. Therefore, the aim of this work is to perform fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analyses of a stented coronary artery in order to understand the effects of the wall compliance on the hemodynamic quantities. Two different materials are considered for the stent: cobalt-chromium (CoCr) and poly-l-lactide (PLLA). The results of the FSI and the corresponding rigid-wall models are compared, focusing in particular on the analysis of the WSS distribution. Results showed similar trends in terms of instantaneous and time-averaged WSS between compliant and rigid-wall cases. In particular, the difference of percentage area exposed to TAWSS lower than 0.4Pa between the CoCr FSI and the rigid-wall cases was about 1.5% while between the PLLA cases 1.0%. The results indicate that, for idealized models of a stented coronary artery, the rigid-wall assumption for fluid dynamic simulations appears adequate when the aim of the study is the analysis of near-wall quantities like WSS.
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