A multi-layer porous wall model for coronary drug-eluting stents

An analytical solution for solving the transient drug diffusion in adjoining porous wall layers faced with a drug-eluting stent is presented. The endothelium, intima, internal elastic lamina and media are all treated as homogeneous porous media and the drug transfer through them is modelled by a set of coupled partial differential equations. The classical separation of variables method for a multi-layer configuration is used. The model addresses the concept of penetration depth for multi-layer solids that is useful to treat the wall thickness by estimating a physical bound for mass diffusion. Drug concentration level and mass profiles in each layer at various times are given and discussed.