# Smart Electronic Stent for Surveillance of Coronary Artery Restenosis

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $157,411

## Abstract

Project Summary
 One of the representative complications after the coronary artery stenting is
restenosis (>420,000 deaths per year), therefore, continuous surveillance of the tissue
ingrowth after the balloon angioplasty or stent placement is a key to assess the cure
rates. While angioplasty or stenting procedures are currently widely used due to its
minimally invasive nature, restenosis (i.e., re-narrowing of a coronary artery) usually
happens within 3-12 months of the procedure. Therefore, the follow-up imaging is
critical for detecting any restenosis development after the procedure. While a few
imaging technologies can detect the restenosis, these would not be used in real-time
surveillance with minimally invasive procedure. There are a few efforts to detect the
restenosis using implantable pressure sensors, however, they are bulky and typically do
not effectively work with the growth of artery tissue.
 To address these issues, we propose a newly designed electronic stent that
incorporates a stretchable, nanostructured strain sensor and open-mesh coils, which
enables a batteryless, wireless recording of strain change regarding restenosis
monitoring. It is our hypothesis that this nanomembrane sensor package can be easily
integrated with a commercially available stent without disturbing the stent's radial
strength or mechanical flexibility. The thickening of the coronary artery due to the
restenosis results in the strain alteration, which can be detected by the implanted strain
sensor in a wireless way. The data detection mechanism based on inductive coupling
without the use of a battery offers real-time monitoring of a strain change in the sensor
via proximity contact of a portable, external device like a smart appliance.
 To achieve this goal, we will focus on three following tasks. First the sensor will
be carefully designed base don the structural computational modeling and numerical
calculation based on the strain changes in the coronary artery over time. Then, the
device will be fabricated using a novel transfer printing technique. Various in vitro tests
will be conducted to evaluate the functionality of the sensor with the stent. Through this
study a new direction of the real-time monitoring will be introduced in the field of the
assessment of the coronary artery stenting. The sensor developed through this project
will be expanded to other endovascular devices if the strain changes critically influence
the tissue remodeling process.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9874240
- **Project number:** 1R03EB028928-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Young Jae Chun
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $157,411
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-19 → 2022-09-18

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9874240

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9874240, Smart Electronic Stent for Surveillance of Coronary Artery Restenosis (1R03EB028928-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9874240. Licensed CC0.

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