Abstract
This study presents a comparison of the drug dispersion capability of various catheters which can be used to inject medication or stem cells into the arterial system. The study was carried out by the use of numerical simulation so that various geometric and physical operating parameters could be investigated. The blood was modeled with a power-law viscosity and the medication had two levels of viscosity to represent upper and lower bounds expected in practice. Two different medication flowrates were also incorporated into the study. Finally, the impact of an inflated balloon up-stream of the injection was studied. The artery was simply modeled as a straight circular tube with the catheters concentrically positioned. It was found that in some cases, dispersion was improved by use of a multi-lumen device, particularly when an upstream balloon was employed to regulate blood flow and drug residence time. In other cases, the dispersion from the single-lumen device was superior. Another finding was that the multi-lumen device had a reduced hydraulic resistance to blood flow, compared to the single-lumen device when an upstream balloon was inflated.
Highlights
Numerous medical situations call for direct injection or infusion of medication or other fluids that can be used for patient treatment
This study presents a comparison of the drug dispersion capability of various catheters which can be used to inject medication or stem cells into the arterial system
Some examples include the intracoronary injection of Adenosine or Nitroglycerin for transient occlusions or spasm or the infusion of stem cells for regenerative therapy following myocardial infarction (MI)
Summary
Numerous medical situations call for direct injection or infusion of medication or other fluids that can be used for patient treatment. We show a single-lumen catheter positioned in an artery. The solution domain extends 3 cm upstream of the location where the medication exits the catheter and enters the bloodstream. The rationale for this was that such an extension allows natural development of the flow prior to the injection location. There, the injection ports can be seen near the periphery of the cross section Upstream of this injection plane, the multi-lumen catheter has a complex fluid flow pathway with multiple mixing regions and collection chambers. As with the single lumen case, the solution domain is extended upstream from the injection plane so that flow development can occur naturally. A single channel empties into a mixing chamber which serves as a manifold for the six multiple injection lumens
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