DEVELOPMENT AND OPTIMIZATION OF A NOVEL POLYMERIC PROSTHETIC HEART VALVE USING THE DEVICE THROMBOGENICITY EMULATION (DTE) METHODOLGY

摘要

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is the most common and life threatening form of valvular heart disease, characterized by stenosis and regurgitation, which is currently treated at the symptomatic end-stages via open-heart surgical replacement of the diseased valve with typically either a xenograft tissue valve or mechanical heart valve. These options offer the clinician a choice between structural valve deterioration and anticoagulant therapy respectively, effectively replacing one disease with another [1]. Polymeric heart valves (PHV) offer the promise of reducing or eliminating these complications [2] and may be efficacious for patients who cannot tolerate cardiothoracic surgery by using instead transcatheter valve implantation (TAVI) [3], where there is evidence that tissue valves are damaged during implantation [4], and in pulsatile circulatory support devices such as the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart. But development of PHVs has been slow due to the lack of sufficiently durable and biocompatible formulations.