Digitized Honors Theses (2002-2017)

Date of Award

5-2016

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

BS

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Mentor

Saami Yazdani, Ph.D.

Advisor(s)

Joseph Richardson, Ph.D., Gregory Poole, Ph.D.

Abstract

The perfusion catheter is a relatively new medical device used to locally administer drugs within arteries by perfusing a drug solution into the wall of the artery. In practice, it would be desirable for the drug solution to penetrate as deeply into the wall as possible to maximize the benefit of the treatment, and this would require knowledge of the optimal combination of delivery pressure and viscosity of the drug solution. A computer model of an aortic wall with pressure-dependent geometric and material properties was used to predict drug penetration for a range of delivery pressures and drug viscosities. The results provide, for the first time, theoretical predictions of drug penetration using a perfusion catheter system, which are suitable for experimental validation.

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