Abstract

OROZCO, Gustavo A; SMITH, Joshua H  and  GARCIA, José J. PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS OF DRUG DISTRIBUTION DURING INFUSIONS INTO THE BRAIN USING AN AXISYMMETRIC MODEL WITH BACKFLOW. Rev. ing. biomed. [online]. 2014, vol.8, n.16, pp.56-64. ISSN 1909-9762.

Convection-enhanced delivery as a means to deliver therapeutic drugs directly to the brain has shown limited clinical efficacy, primarily attributed to the phenomena of backflow, in which the infused fluid flows preferentially along the shaft catheter rather than forward into the tissue. We have previously developed a finite element model of backflow that includes both material and geometric nonlinearities and the free boundary conditions associated with the displacement of the tissue away from the external surface of the catheter. However, that study was limited to predictions of the tissue deformation and resulting convective fluid velocity in the interstitial space. In this study, we use results from that model to solve for the distribution of the infused therapeutic agent. We demonstrate that a significant percentage of the infused drug is not transported into the region of tissue located forward from the catheter tip, but instead is transported into the region along the lateral sides of the catheter. For lower flow rates, this study suggests that the use of a catheter with a larger radius may be preferable since it will provide the higher amount of drug to be transported to the tissue in front of the catheter. In contrast, for higher flow rates consistent with clinical infusions, the radius of the infusion catheter had minimal effect on the distribution of the infused drug, with most being transported into the tissue around the shaft of the catheter.

Keywords : Convection-enhanced delivery; Infusion drugs; Computational model; Mass transport; Brain tumors.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in English     · English ( pdf )