Effect of severe bioprosthetic valve tissue ingrowth and inflow calcification on valve-in-valve performance

While in-vivo studies clearly demonstrate that supra-annular Valve-in-Valve (ViV) implantation provides the highest probability for optimal post-ViV pressure gradients (PG), there is still no physical insight into explaining anomalies where some supra-annular ViV implantations yield high pressure gradients while some sub-annular implantations yield low pressure gradients. The aim of this study is to explain how severe tissue ingrowth and calcification (TIC) in a surgical aortic valve (SAV) can be one physical mechanism leading to anomalous ViV performance characteristic.
Source: Journal of Biomechanics - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research