Ponentes
Descripción
Drug-eluting stents (DES) have become a standard treatment for coronary artery disease by providing localized and sustained drug delivery to prevent restenosis. Nevertheless, the therapeutic efficacy of these devices strongly depends on the transport mechanisms governing drug distribution within the arterial wall. Understanding the interplay among diffusion, convection, tissue permeability, and drug–tissue interactions is essential for optimizing stent performance and improving long-term clinical outcomes.
In this work, we investigate the elution dynamics of sirolimus released from coronary drug-eluting stents and its transport through a multilayer arterial wall composed of the endothelium, internal elastic lamina, media, and adventitia. The arterial wall is modeled as a heterogeneous porous medium with layer-dependent transport properties. The system is described by a convection–diffusion–reaction model that accounts for both free and tissue-bound drug concentrations. Interstitial fluid motion within the porous tissue is governed by Darcy’s law, enabling the role of tissue permeability in drug penetration and retention to be assessed. Distinct physiological and transport parameters are assigned to each arterial layer to capture the heterogeneity of the vascular wall and provide a realistic representation of intramural drug delivery.
The governing equations are discretized using the finite element method and solved numerically in the Julia programming language using the Gridap.jl framework. The computational model is used to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution of sirolimus concentration within the arterial wall and to evaluate the effects of permeability, diffusion coefficients, reaction kinetics, and interstitial flow on its distribution.
The proposed framework enables the identification of key parameters controlling drug retention, tissue uptake, and transmural drug distribution, providing a computational tool for the analysis and optimization of coronary drug-eluting stents.