Abstract
Some conditions are well known to be directly associated with stent failure, including in-stent re-occlusion and stent fracture. Currently, identification of these high-risk conditions requires invasive and complex procedures. This study aims to assess microwave spectrometry (MWS) for monitoring stents non-invasively. Preliminary ex vivo data are presented to move to in vivo validation. Fifteen mice were assigned to receive subcutaneous stent implantations (n = 10) or sham operations (n = 5). MWS measurements were carried out at 0, 2, 4, 7, 14, 22, and 29 days of follow-up. Additionally, 5 stented animals were summited to micro-CT analyses at the same time points. At 29 days, 3 animals were included into a stent fracture subgroup and underwent a last MWS and micro-CT analysis. MWS was able to identify stent position and in-stent stenosis over time, also discerning significant differences from baseline measures (P < 0.001). Moreover, MWS identified fractured vs. non-fractured stents in vivo. Taken together, MWS emerges as a non-invasive, non-ionizing alternative for stent monitoring. MWS analysis clearly distinguished between in-stent stenosis and stent fracture phenomena.
Highlights
Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death worldwide
In this work we have set up a new approach for detection of stent structural failure and in-stent lipid occlusion, and for the first time, we assessed in vivo microwave spectrometry (MWS) for stent monitoring
We expect this dependence to be even more sensitive in an in vivo measurement, where the ratio of permittivities of the materials involved would be higher than the one in our experiment. These ex vivo pre-clinical findings suggests us that this technology has the potential to monitor common concerns associated with coronary stents over the long-term, which are changes in stent geometry and in-stent re-occlusion
Summary
Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. It contributes to more than 7 million deaths annually[1]. Several high frequency-based alternatives for monitoring stents have been investigated[7,8,9], but require complex solutions such as prior incorporation of electronic chips to the stent. Recent studies have assessed the prospect of a new, non-invasive, non-ionizing stent monitoring method based on microwave spectrometry (MWS)[10,11,12]. In contrast to the other approaches, MWS does not require prior stent modifications and should be valid with all currently available metallic stents. In this context, MWS -defined as a measurement of the frequency response of the sample to microwave electromagnetic fields- is a potentially non-invasive and non-ionizing stent monitoring technique. In this work we have set up a new approach for detection of stent structural failure and in-stent lipid occlusion, and for the first time, we assessed in vivo MWS for stent monitoring
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