Coronary stent deployment is a reference cardiology intervention, used to treat atherosclerosis and prevent heart attacks. The outcomes of the intervention highly depend on the accuracy of the stent apposition, which could benefit from per-operative prediction tools. In this paper, we propose a fast and mechanically realistic 3D simulation of a coronary stent expansion. Our simulation relies on the finite element method and involves serially linked beam elements to model the slender geometry of a stent. The elements are implemented with a non-linear elasto-plastic behavior, describing realistically the complex deformation of a balloon-expandable stent. As a proof of concept, we simulated the free expansion of a coronary stent. The simulation output was compared with micro-CT data, acquired experimentally during the device expansion. Results show that the plastic beam model is able to reproduce successfully the final geometry of the stent. In addition, the use of 1D elements allows to achieve a significantly lower computational time than for equivalent literature simulations, based on 3D elements. This preliminary work highlights the compatibility of our method with clinical routine in terms of execution time. Further developments include the application of the method to more advanced simulation scenarios, with the addition of a personalized artery model.

The treatment of the coronary artery disease by balloonexpandable stent apposition is a fully endovascular procedure. As a consequence, limited imaging data is available to cardiologists, who could benefit from additional per-operative information. This study aims at providing a relevant prediction tool for stent apposition, in the form of a mechanically precise simulation, fast enough to be compatible with clinical routine. Our method consists in a finite element discretisation of the stent using 1D connected beam elements, with nonlinear plastic behaviour. The artery wall is modelled as a surface mesh interacting with the stent. As a proof of concept, the simulation is compared to micro-CT scans, which were acquired during the apposition of a stent in a silicone coronary phantom. Our results show that the simulation is able to accurately reproduce the stent final geometry, in a computational time greatly lower than for classic 3D finite element codes. Although this first validation step is preliminary, our work is to be extended towards more realistic scenarios, notably with the introduction of a personalised artery model and the corresponding in vivo validation.