Recent Progress on Preferential Covered Stent Development

Carotid artery stenosis can be treated by carotid endarterectomy operations (CEA) and carotid artery stenting procedures (CAS). Unlike other artery stents, the effectiveness and safety of carotid artery stenting is not prevailing though it has many advantages. Our group has been developing new generation carotid artery stent since 2011. The innovative carotid stent was named as preferential covered stent (PCS) as it could prevent both emboli release at internal carotid artery (ICA) and provide perfusion to external carotid artery (ECA). A series of studies have been carried out to verify the carotid stent design through modeling and simulation, in vitro loop testing, and in vivo pilot animal testing in our previous proof of concept (POC) stage. Here we report some recent findings on PCS development, including simulation and experimental work on stent crimpability, membrane material characterization, and the flow response for different slit designs in vitro.