Experimental Investigation of the Local Blood Flow Pattern in Stented Coronary Bifurcations

Stenting procedures give the opportunity to treat cardiovascular diseases with a time saving, cost effective and minimally invasive procedure when compared to coronary artery by-pass, while ensuring improved clinical results than balloon angioplasty. However, despite their success, stenting procedures are still associated with some clinical problems like sub-acute thrombosis (ST) and in-stent restenosis (ISR). Several clinical studies associate these issues to the local blood flow alterations caused by stent implantation. In particular, hemodynamic forces like wall shear stresses induce endothelial cells to experience an enhanced proliferative attitude.