This work was supported by a grant of the:
Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation,
CNCS/CCCDI – UEFISCDI,
project number PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2016-0293, within PNCDI III
Experimental demonstration project (PED)
Project period: 2017 September 1 – 2018 December 31
The long-term success of arterial bypass surgery is often limited by the progression of intimal hyperplasia at the anastomosis between the graft and the native artery. To prevent the failure of implanted prostheses, the adhesion of proteins or the aggregation of platelets should be inhibited. Once a foreign body is recognized (natural or artificial graft), the proteins and platelets that are usually circulating in the bloodstream start to adhere and aggregate so that they are attached to the surface of the prostheses one by one. Researchers have attempted various improvements to increase the hemodynamic performance of the implanted grafts to regulate the hemodynamic parameters and wall shear stress indices, in order to avoid triggering of the pathogenic factors of IH and thrombosis (e.g., platelet activation, long near-wall residence time, etc.,), as well as provide a smooth blood flow without flow disturbances using the hemodynamically optimized graft and anastomotic configuration.
Compared to traditional planar grafts, non-planar graft configurations (specialy the helical graft) improve flow characteristics by causing swirling and a relatively uniform distribution of axial and near wall velocity, avoinding and flusing of stagnant flow region reducing the potential for deposit build up within and downstream of the graft and consequently reducing potential of the development of vascular pathology.
Project goal:
- The goal is regarding put in evidence the advantages of the helical geometry, namely provide evidence that swirl flow generates by the helical graft operates to inhibit the development of vascular diseases such as thrombosis, atherosclerosis, and intimal hyperplasia. This aspect will be investigated both by numerical simulation and experimental measurements for different geometrical configurations.
- The second goal is to build a portable experimental model which put in evidence the efficiency of the flow field generated by the helical-type bypass graft, from the point of view of the particles accumulation in the targeted region (distal bypass anastomosis).