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The design of an apparatus for creating a model drug-eluting stent
Thesis   Open access

The design of an apparatus for creating a model drug-eluting stent

Rebecca Lynn Kitchmire
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Jun 2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00000033
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Abstract

Cardiovascular system--Diseases Drug-eluting stents Protective coatings Stents (Surgery)
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common form of cardiovascular disease in the United States. Drug eluting stents (DESs) are a commonly used medical device in the treatment of CAD. However, the polymer coatings that are applied to these stents for drug release over an extended period can cause an inflammatory response at the implantation site. To counteract this, many researchers are seeking new polymer coatings by fabricating DESs at a laboratory level. These fabrication processes are inconsistent across research facilities and could benefit from a well-defined processing procedure for DES fabrication. This study aimed to create an apparatus and processing procedure for applying a polymer coating to a bare metal stent. The design incorporated a combination of hardware and software components to develop a polymer spray-coating apparatus. The final apparatus design consisted of both a stent mount component and a polymer spray component. The stent mount component was capable of 360 degrees of rotary motion. The polymer spray component was capable of more than 20 mm of linear motion and also released a polymer spray of polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) dissolved in ethyl acetate. Both components of the design incorporated custom designed and 3D printed elements. A processing procedure was then developed to allow the device to apply a polymer coating of uniform morphology and thickness to stainless-steel foils. Information from experiments involving the mass flow rate and spraying efficiency of the polymer spray component were utilized to create this processing procedure. When this procedure was used to apply a polymer coating to stainless-steel foils, a uniform coating morphology and thickness were observed. However, when this processing procedure was translated to stainless-steel stents, large variations in coating morphology and thickness were observed. Future work will be useful to further refine the processing procedure and create DES samples with uniform coating morphologies and thicknesses.

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