The influence of atherosclerotic plaques on the pharmacokinetics of a drug eluted from bioabsorbable stents

In this paper the effect of plaque composition, on the accumulation of drug released by a drug eluting stent, is analyzed. The mathematical model is represented by two coupled systems of partial differential equations that describe the pharmacokinetics of drug in the stent coating and in the arterial wall. The influence of the stiffness and porosity of soft and hard plaques is studied. A case study based on optical coherence tomography images is also included.