Investigation of expansion characteristics of coronary slot stents using finite element analysis

Abstract

Coronary stents are metallic tubes inserted in coronary arteries to treat cardiovascular diseases. The Palmaz-Schatz®, Stent is the most representative member of the family of slot stents. In this paper, the impact of the geometry of the stent on its expansion behaviours was investigated using the ANSYS 9.0 finite element analysis (FEA) software. Several design cases, with the presence of a certain stenosed coronary artery, were selected for our research investigation. Results of the analysis, including expansion and radial displacement, radial recoil percentage, foreshortening percentage and von Mises stress distribution of various stents have been compared and discussed. This revealed significant potential relationships between the geometry of the stent and its expansion behaviours. © 2006 International Federation for Information Processing.