Simulation and preparation of novel medium convex artificial blood vessel for reducing compliance mismatch

Abstract

Compliance mismatch between artificial blood vessel and host vessel can cause abnormal hemodynamics and is the main mechanical trigger of intimal hyperplasia (IH) after transplantation. To explore the specific effects of the degree of compliance mismatch on hemodynamics, the concept of “compliance mismatch degree” was defined in this paper. Numerical results showed that when the compliance mismatch degree was less than −22.21% or more than 3.16%, the minimum WSS in the anastomotic site was less than the safety threshold of 0.5 ​Pa, which is easy to induce IH. In addition, the compliance mismatch caused different radial displacements first, which in turn affected the hemodynamics. Inspired by this, a novel medium convex artificial blood vessel was proposed, and the simulation results theoretically validated its desired effect on reducing the compliance mismatch. An increase of 0.22 ​mm in the diameter of the artificial blood vessel corresponded to a decrease of 0.88% in compliance mismatch degree. The feasibility of preparing real medium convex artificial blood vessel was also investigated. The PLCL medium convex artificial blood vessel with good mechanical properties was prepared by dip-coating and electrospinning composite method. These findings are valuable for the design and preparation of novel artificial blood vessel which can make up for the mismatch of compliance.