Evaluation of Compliance of Poly (vinyl alcohol) Hydrogel for Development of Arterial Biomodeling

摘要

An in vitro blood vessel biomodeling with realistic mechanical properties and geometrical structures will be helpful for the training of intervention, preoperative simulation, and realizing the same physical conditions of blood flow. Poly (vinyl alcohol) hydrogel (PVA-H) with low surface friction, good transparency, and similar elasticity to blood vessel has been developed and accepted as a good material for biomodeling. However, the compliance of PVA-H vessel model has not been measured. In this study, we changed the elasticity and measured the compliance of a box-typed PVA-H biomodeling, to represent the similar compliance to a real artery. PVA powders were dissolved in a mixture of water and organic solvent so that PVA solutions of 12, 18 wt% were prepared. The model was subjected to hydrostatic pressure by adding distilled water and the inner diameter was measured using an ultrasound system. The compliance of each model was calculated from the strain of inner diameter and the inner pressure. The inner diameter of model increases linearly as the inner pressure increases. The compliance of PVA-H model is constant according to pressure change, while that of a real blood vessel changes nonlinearly. This difference may depend on the isotropic characteristics of PVA-H, whereas a real blood vessel is anisotropic. These results indicate that adding anisotropy, such as orientation of PVA, to model would be necessary to represent the compliance of a real artery.