Performance Of Nitinol Stents Research Articles

Effect of balloon pre-dilation on performance of self-expandable nitinol stent in femoropopliteal artery

Balloon pre-dilation is usually performed before implantation of a nitinol stent in a femoropopliteal artery in a case of severe blockage or calcified plaque. However, its effect on performance of the nitinol stent in a diseased femoropopliteal artery has not been studied yet. This study compares the outcomes of stenting with pre-dilation and without it by modelling the entire processes of stent deployment. Fatigue deformation of the implanted stent is also modelled under diastolic–systolic blood pressure, repetitive bending, torsion, axial compression and their combination. Reduced level of stress in the stent occurs after stenting with pre-dilation, but causing the increased damage in the media layer, i.e. the middle layer of the arterial wall. Generally, pre-dilation increases the risk of nitinol stent’s fatigue failure. Additionally, the development of in-stent restenosis is predicted based on the stenting-induced tissue damage in the media layer, and no severe mechanical irritation is induced to the media layer by pre-dilation, stent deployment or fatigue loading.

Finite element analysis of NiTi self-expandable heart valve stent.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation is a minimally invasive treatment for severe symptomatic aortic valve stenosis. Nitinol stents are proposed for aortic stenosis patients at high risk. In the present study, at different implantation depths in the aortic valve, the crimping and performance of Nitinol stents are investigated. To do so, a constitutive model based on Microplane theory is utilized and implemented through the finite element to express the constitutive characteristics of Nitinol. The self-expanding stent made of NiTi is designed and simulated using the finite element method. To validate the developed model, the obtained results using beam and solid finite element models are compared with those reported in the literature. Superelastic behavior as well as shape memory effect of the Nitinol stent is studied during crimping and deployment. The simulated results show that the produced radial force increases by increasing the implantation depth in a cardiac cycle.