Persistence of the pathology of in-stent restenosis even with the advent of drug-eluting stents warrants the development of highly resolved in silico models. These computational models assist in gaining insights into the transient biochemical and cellular mechanisms involved and thereby optimize the stent implantation parameters. Within this work, an already established fully-coupled Lagrangian finite element framework for modeling the restenotic growth is enhanced with the incorporation of endothelium-mediated effects and pharmacological influences of rapamycin-based drugs embedded in the polymeric layers of the current generation drug-eluting stents. The continuum mechanical description of growth is further justified in the context of thermodynamic consistency. Qualitative inferences are drawn from the model developed herein regarding the efficacy of the level of drug embedment within the struts as well as the release profiles adopted. The framework is then intended to serve as a tool for clinicians to tune the interventional procedures patient-specifically.

翻译：即使药物洗脱支架的出现，支架内再狭窄病理的持续存在仍促使高分辨率计算机模型的开发。这些计算模型有助于理解涉及的瞬态生化和细胞机制，从而优化支架植入参数。本研究在已有的完全耦合拉格朗日有限元框架基础上，通过整合内皮介导效应及基于雷帕霉素的药物（嵌入当前药物洗脱支架聚合物涂层中）的药理作用，增强了再狭窄生长的建模能力。进一步在热力学一致性背景下验证了生长的连续介质力学描述。根据所开发的模型，就支架梁内药物嵌入程度及所采用的释放曲线对疗效的影响得出了定性结论。该框架旨在成为临床医生针对患者个体化调整介入手术的工具。