Optimization of Magnetic Milli-Spinner for Robotic Endovascular Intervention

TL;DR

This paper presents an optimized magnetic milli-spinner design that achieves high velocities for navigation in complex vascular environments, enabling advanced endovascular interventions.

Contribution

It combines simulations and experiments to optimize the milli-spinner's structure for high-speed propulsion and effective clot removal in blood-mimicking fluids.

Findings

Achieved swimming velocities of 55 cm/s in saline and 44 cm/s in blood-like viscosity.

Optimization of design parameters significantly improved propulsion performance.

Demonstrated stable upstream operation against strong physiological flows.

Abstract

Vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, thrombosis, and aneurysms can lead to life-threatening medical events. Conventional catheter- or guidewire-based interventional devices often struggle to navigate through highly tortuous vasculature. The recently developed multifunctional magnetic milli-spinner offers a promising wireless solution by integrating a central through-hole and side slits into a cylindrical body with helical fins, enabling rapid and stable navigation for clot debulking, targeted drug delivery, and aneurysm treatment. Here, we combine computational fluid dynamics simulations with experimental validation to optimize the milli-spinner's structural design for high-velocity propulsion and high-efficiency clot debulking in tubular flow environments. By systematically investigating the effects of through-hole radius, fin number, fin helical angle, and slit dimension on propulsion performance, the optimized milli-spinner achieves swimming velocities of 55 cm/s (175 body lengths per second) in saline water and 44 cm/s (140 body lengths per second) in a fluid with viscosity (3.5 mPa.s) comparable to that of arterial blood at high shear rates, far exceeding existing untethered magnetic robots in tubular environments (less than 80 body lengths per second). This exceptional velocity enables stable upstream operation against strong physiological flows representative of major arteries and veins, establishing the milli-spinner as a robust untethered navigation platform for operation in high-flow, tortuous vasculature.