Abstract:Objective To investigate the influence of different protrusion distance of stent strut into the subclavian artery on local hemodynamics of the vertebral artery (VA) ostium.Methods Five models of the VA were established. Model 1 was without stent implantation, Model 2 to 5 was with stent protruding into the subclavian artery for 0, 1, 2, 3 mm, respectively. Computational fluid dynamics analysis was performed to study the differences of hemodynamics in these models. Results After stent implantation, the wall shear stress and the blood flow velocity at the stent segment in the Model 2 was reduced by 85.33% and 35.36%, respectively. The phenomenon of swirling flow disappeared. For models with different protrusion distance, the maximum difference of wall shear stress of VA was 0.76%, and the maximum difference of blood flow velocity is 0.45%. ConclusionsStent implantation can improve the hemodynamics of vertebral artery ostium stenosis, while the protrusion distance of stent strut has no obvious influence on the blood flow velocity and wall shear stress.