Stent a rilascio di farmaco: una storia di successo per la matematica applicata

Formaggia, L. ; Minisini, S. ; Zunino, P.

La Matematica nella società e nella cultura, Série 1, Tome 3 (2010) no. 2, pp. 181-200

Résumé

In the last decades the adoption of mathematical models to support medical research has found a considerable increase of interest, stimulating the activity of applied mathematicians. A better understanding of the physical and biological phenomena together with the availability of powerful and affordable computers has prompted the use of numerical simulation as a complement, even if not yet as a substitute, of animal experimentation and clinical trials. In the case considered here, namely that of particular drug eluting devices used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis, it allows for the evaluation of the effect of different designs of the device, or different type of drugs. In this article we give a review of mathematical models used for simulating the functioning of drug eluting stents. We start by considering the simplest models, based on empirical formulae or ordinary differential equations, up to models based on systems of partial differential equations that describe the drug elution processes coupled with the diffusion and transport of the drug in biological tissues and blood flow.