MIT Researchers Find Out Why Some Stents can Cause Heart Attacks

Drug-releasing stents are used to prevent heart tissues from growing within an artery after angioplasty, and they are used in more than a million U.S. patients every year. They release drugs like paclitaxel and rapamycin, which can successfully impede tissue growth, but despite their seemingly helpful mission, some stents have been shown to cause very dangerous side effects.

For years, medical researchers have puzzled over their observations about drug-releasing stents. These are the tubes used to hold a patient’s coronary arteries open after surgery, but sometimes they can increase the likelihood of heart attacks from blood clots.

Medical equipment developers from MIT have recently developed a mathematical model to predict which types of stents are most likely to have these life-threatening side effects.

The MIT Model helps explain why certain types of stents are better than others, using a model which is based upon the size and shape of the stent itself. According to their study, certain stents impact the dynamics of the fluid, or blood that is flowing past them, which can cause drugs to accumulate in certain areas. When this occurs, the drugs they release can build-up, causing clots to form.

This groundbreaking research represents the first time a mathematical model has examined changes in arterial blood flow to predict stent performance. Until now, a stents impact on the distribution of drugs had not been considered.

Thanks to this conclusive research, medical equipment manufacturers are expected to design stents that allow for a more even distribution of drugs throughout the area.

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