Fig 1.
Geometries and mesh models for (a) blade, (b) balloon with pad and blade, and (c) coronary artery with calcified artery model.
Table 1.
Initial diameters and Young’s moduli of the balloons, obtained using finite element analysis.
Fig 2.
Expansion of cutting balloon in the stenotic calcified artery models.
(a) Crimp and compression process of a folded balloon. (b) Configuration of cutting balloon in the calcified artery model. (c) Two types of models for the analysis (Type 1: one blade is placed inside the calcification model, Type 2: two blades are placed inside the calcification model).
Fig 3.
Stress distributions in the calcified artery models for Type 1 and Type 2 at rated pressure (12 atm) with five different balloon diameters.
The cross-sectional stress distributions in the thickness-wise direction were at the longitudinal end of the calcification models. The location of label “A-A” is the longitudinal end of the calcification. The label “LW” denotes the lumen width of calcification at the longitudinal end at balloon inflation.
Fig 4.
Peak values of the maximum principal tensile stresses in the calcification models along the longitudinal direction when the cutting balloon is inflated at the rated pressure (12 atm).
Fig 5.
Stress distributions in the artery model for Type 1 and Type 2 at the rated pressure (12 atm) for five different balloon diameters.
Fig 6.
Effects of cutting balloon diameter and blade direction on the maximum principal tensile stresses in the models of the calcification and artery adjacent to the calcification.
(a) Maximum principal tensile stresses in the calcification model for Type 1 and Type 2 for five different balloon diameters. (b) Maximum principal tensile stresses in the artery model adjacent to the calcification for Type 1 and Type 2 for five different balloon diameters.
Table 2.
Peak values of the maximum principal tensile stresses in the calcification models.
Table 3.
Lumen width at the inner surface of the calcification model at the longitudinal and circumferential ends.
Table 4.
Peak values of the maximum principal tensile stresses in the model of artery adjacent to the calcification.
Fig 7.
Incidence of slippage during the inflation of balloons of diameters 2 and 2.25 mm.
Fig 8.
Changes in the angles of the blades during inflation.
(a) Change in the angle of the blade facing the calcification model during expansion. (b) Comparison of angle changes among 2, 2.25, 2.5, 2.75, and 3 mm cutting balloons for the entire pressure range.