ARUP; ISBN: 978-0-9562121-5-3 - CMBBE 2012 - Cardiff University

Post-stenting
Post-relaxation
Systolic Diastolic
Systolic Diastolic
Fig. 3 – Contours of radial stress (Pa) seen from the cross-section of the stented vessel. Results are
shown at both systolic and diastolic pressure. The stress distribution is shown immediately after
stent deployment (Post-stenting) and after a further elapsed time of 2500 s (Post-relaxation).
5. DISCUSSION
Application of initial pre-stretch and systolic pressure increases the peak compressive
stress generated by the stent by 280%. The viscoelastic effects influence both the
magnitude of stress within the stented region and the area of the vessel wall subjected to
high compressive stress outside the stented region. The role of structural stress in the
development of neointimal formation is currently not well described. The stress state of
neointimal tissue is unknown and may be related to stresses present in the vessel wall at
the time of neointimal formation. Therefore, stress relaxation in the vessel may
influence both the growth rate and the stress state of newly formed tissue constituents.