Multi-Objective Design of a Biodegradable Coronary Artery Stent

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AbstractEver since the mid 1980s when the first-in-man coronary stent procedure was conducted, commercially available coronary stents have evolved from the original stainless steel Palmaz-Schatz style of design to a range of highly flexible, slick structures capable of providing arterial support with very thin struts. The availability of modern alloys such as platinum-chromium has facilitated the evolution to thin strutted, highly flexible devices. However, an important juncture has been reached wherein the combination of thin struts and low numbers of stent links/bridges has introduced a new challenge associated with loss of longitudinal strength. Interestingly, this has coincided with an increasing focus on the use of biodegradable materials (e.g., polymers or magnesium). So, whilst polymer scaffolds currently require relatively thick struts, it might be anticipated that efforts will be made to develop stronger polymers also leading to thinner struts, but with the awareness of the pitfalls associated with emphasis on particular measures of performance (objectives) at the expense of others. In parallel with the evolution of coronary stents, computational methods (and hardware) have developed to a point whereby optimization and simulation tools can now be used to systematically design devices in a realistic time-scale. This chapter demonstrates how these tools can be harnessed to guide the multi-objective design process, with the ultimate aim that superior prototypes, particularly those that are biodegradable, can be designed and refined computationally.KeywordsMaximum Principal StrainTissue StressStrut ThicknessMinimum Lumen AreaRadial StrengthThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.