Effects of leaflet curvature and thickness on the crimping stresses in transcatheter heart valve

Alp Karakoç; Olcay Aksoy; Ertuğrul Taciroğlu

doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2023.111663

Effects of leaflet curvature and thickness on the crimping stresses in transcatheter heart valve

J Biomech. 2023 Jul:156:111663. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2023.111663. Epub 2023 May 27.

Authors

Alp Karakoç¹, Olcay Aksoy², Ertuğrul Taciroğlu³

Affiliations

¹ Aalto University, Department of Communications and Networking, 02150, Finland; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, USA. Electronic address: akarakoc@alumni.ucla.edu.
² Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, USA.
³ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, USA.

PMID: 37295168
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2023.111663

Abstract

With the current advances and expertise in biomedical device technologies, transcatheter heart valves (THVs) have been drawing significant attention. Various studies have been carried out on their durability and damage by dynamic loading in operational conditions. However, very few numerical investigations have been conducted to understand the effects of leaflet curvature and thickness on the crimping stresses which arise during the surgical preparation processes. In order to contribute to the current state of the art, a full heart valve model was presented, the leaflet curvature and thickness of which were then parameterized so as to understand the stress generation as a result of the crimping procedure during the surgical preparations. The results show that the existence of stresses is inevitable during the crimping procedure, which is a reduction factor for valve durability. Especially, stresses on the leaflets at the suture sites connected with the skirt were deduced to be critical and may result in leaflet ruptures after THV implantation.

Keywords: Crimping; Finite element analysis (FEA); Leaflet curvature; Leaflet thickness; Transcatheter heart valve (THV).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aortic Valve / surgery
Heart Valve Prosthesis*
Prosthesis Design
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement*