RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Quantifying the mechanical and histological properties of thrombus analog made from human blood for the creation of synthetic thrombus for thrombectomy device testing
JF Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery
JO J NeuroIntervent Surg
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
SP 1168
OP 1173
DO 10.1136/neurintsurg-2017-013675
VO 10
IS 12
A1 Merritt, William
A1 Holter, Anne Marie
A1 Beahm, Sharna
A1 Gonzalez, Connor
A1 Becker, Timothy A
A1 Tabor, Aaron
A1 Ducruet, Andrew F
A1 Bonsmann, Laura S
A1 Cotter, Trevor R
A1 Frenklakh, Sergey
YR 2018
UL http://jnis.bmj.com/content/10/12/1168.abstract
AB Background Untreated ischemic stroke can lead to severe morbidity and death, and as such, there are numerous endovascular blood-clot removal (thrombectomy) devices approved for human use. Human thrombi types are highly variable and are typically classified in qualitative terms – ‘soft/red,’ ‘hard/white,’ or ‘aged/calcified.’ Quantifying human thrombus properties can accelerate the development of thrombus analogs for the study of thrombectomy outcomes, which are often inconsistent among treated patients.Methods ‘Soft’human thrombi were created from blood samples ex vivo (ie, human blood clotted in sample vials) and tested for mechanical properties using a hybrid rheometer material testing system. Synthetic thrombus materials were also mechanically tested and compared with the ‘soft’ human blood clots.Results Mechanical testing quantified the shear modulus and dynamic (elastic) modulus of volunteer human thrombus samples. This data was used to formulate a synthetic blood clot made from a composite polymer hydrogel of polyacrylamide and alginate (PAAM-Alg). The PAAM-Alg interpenetrating network of covalently and ionically cross-linked polymers had tunable elastic and shear moduli properties and shape memory characteristics.Conclusions Due to its adjustable properties, PAAM-Alg can be modified to mimic various thrombi classifications. Future studies will include obtaining and quantitatively classifying patient thrombectomy samples and altering the PAAM-Alg to mimic the results for use with in vitro thrombectomy studies.