Enhanced Targeted Drug Delivery Through Controlled Release in a Three-Dimensional Vascular Tree

The idealized 3D vascular tree geometry used in the present study showing the definition of the anatomical positions, the origin of the Cartesian coordinate system and key design parameters in the root branch of the tree. The naming convention for the 32 outlet branches is shown in the inferior view for clarity.

The mean flowrate and flowrate waveforms used in the steady and pulsatile simulations, respectively. Illustrated are 11 key times within the cardiac cycle where planar particles were released.

The schematic diagram of the 3D vascular tree geometry viewed from the inlet (see Fig. 1), where branch 12 is the target branch and its direct neighbor is branch 11: (a) left half of the tree branches and (b) right half of the tree branches

Instantaneous particle locations throughout the course of a generic steady state simulation at (a) t = 0.01 s, (b) t = 0.08 s, the approximate time at which the fastest moving particles reach the first bifurcation, (c) t = 0.6 s, the approximate time at which the fastest particles exit the domain, and (d) t = 2 s, the end of the simulation at which all particles traveling at the average velocity through the tree should have exited the domain

PRM of the 65 nm particles, where the gray color represents the particles that remain in the domain at the end of simulations

PRSMs for branch outlet 9–16 as the targets with normalized PDF values between 0 and 1

PRMs of the 65 nm particles over one cardiac cycle. Color codes used to indicate individual outlets and particles remain in the domain at the end of simulations are the same as those used in Fig. 5.

TPRSMs for branch outlet 9–16 as the targets with normalized PDF values between 0 and 1