Study on design of micro-stirrer for thrombus dissolution

The cerebral thrombus or blood clot might cause cerebral stroke and even decease if the clot could not be dissolved within several hours after it was formed. This paper presents the fundamental study on design of a micro stirrer for high effective dissolution. Based on the experimental results, the micro stirrer was analyzed by FEM with the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis. The stirring effect was evaluated by the movement of the stirrer and the flow around the stirrer, and the performance index associated with the dissolution performance was presented. Using the performance index, several types of stirrers were evaluated. The obtained results demonstrated that the dissolution performance of the stirrer was influenced by the shape and the volume of the PZT actuator.