In-Vitro Clot Modeling for the Preclinical Assessment of Mechanical Thrombectomy in Acute Ischemic Stroke

Mechanical thrombectomy devices, such as retrievers or aspiration catheters, have recently received approval from the FDA for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. There is growing interest in endovascular recanalization procedures due to mounting evidence of favorable clinical outcomes. Several attempts have been made to establish dedicated clot models for in-vitro or in-vivo simulation of thromboembolism [1,2]. However, little is known about the mechanical and structural similarities between experimental clots and human sources of emboli that cause stroke. The goal of this study is to compare the structure and compression behavior of the possible sources of the cerebral emboli extracted from patients and model clots produced in-vitro using human, porcine and bovine donors.