Influencia del radio del catéter angioplástico sobre la caida de presión transestenótica en arterias coronarias. Análisis numérico

JOSE DI PAOLO; GABRIEL FILIPOWICZ; SEBASTIÁN UBAL; DIEGO MARTIN CAMPANA

METODOS NUMERICOS PARA CALCULO Y DESENO EN INGENIERIA

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (España)

Lugar: Barcelona, España; Año: 2006 vol. 22 p. 261 - 275

0213-1315

The stenosis of the coronary artery reduces the vessel cross section diminishing the blood flow to the irrigated tissues. Angioplastic catheters are used for the treatment and research of these pathologies, allowing also the measurement of the pressure, in order to evaluate the significance of the obstruction.The insertion of the catheter into the artery produces an additional obstruction that increases the measured pressure drop. In this work, we study the influence of the catheter size on the pressure drop, for several stenosis degrees; the aim is to determine the deviations introduced by the catheter on its own measurements. That can be accomplished by comparing the results obtained for the model with catheter, in contrast to the results found for the model without it, assuming the latter case as the physiologic situation.This study is performed solving a model of equations based on the hypothesis of incompressible flow, Newtonian fluid and rigid arterial wall, with geometrical data supported by angiographic observations which we employed to obtain a standard model of the lesion. The equations are solved by means of an algorithm based on the finite element method: the efficient numerical code employed allows us to obtain novel results for 3D-axisymmetric geometries, transient flow conditions and several flow rates and obstructions degrees.The results show that the catheters used in the medical practice introduce overestimation on its measurements; therefore, thinner devices are required in order to achieve reliable values of the pressure drop.