Quantifying the Consequences of Catheter Steerability Limitations on Targeted Drug Delivery

TL;DR

This study models how catheter steerability limitations impact targeted drug delivery, quantifying the risk of systemic toxicity and guiding optimal catheter size choices under different steerability constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a probabilistic method to quantify toxicity uncertainty caused by steerability limitations and analyzes the effects of vasculature and catheter size on delivery outcomes.

Findings

Existence of a 'transition toxicity' level influencing catheter size choice.

Larger catheters are preferable beyond the transition toxicity level.

Easier decision-making for catheter size in zero-steerability conditions.

Abstract

In this work, we virtually study the intra-arterial targeted drug delivery. Specifically, this work models and quantifies the uncertainties associated with catheter steerability limitations. We classify catheter's limited steerability into two types, i.e., zero steerability, and wall pressing steerability. Further, we investigate the effects of steerability limitations on uncertainty of causing systemic toxicity levels, i.e., percentage of drug particles missing target. Proposed method quantifies the uncertainty of causing systemic toxicity in terms of probability. With this calculation approach, we look at the effects of upstream vasculature and catheter tip size. Results indicate the existence of a 'transition toxicity' level. Beyond transition toxicity level, larger catheters should be preferred over smaller catheters. Furthermore, we found that it is relatively easier to decide preferrable catheter size in zero-steerability than wall-pressing steerability conditions.