Early prototyping and testing of a model of an expandable heart valve apparatus for paediatric deployment

Valvular heart disease is any abnormal condition which involves one or more of the heart valves - the aortic and mitral valves on the left and the pulmonary and tricuspid valves on the right. Valves diseases in infants are congenital and their effect is to burden the heart with an increased work to maintain the stroke volume what might result in heart muscle dysfunction and potential congestive heart failure. There are two main possibilities of the treatment of those abnormalities - heart valve repair and heart valve replacement, both of which might be very complicated. If a child needs a replacement of the heart valve, there are only a limited number of options available, all of which have one limitation in common: they have a fixed diameter and cannot grow with an infant. Unlike traditional prosthetic heart valves, the expandable valves can be enlarged while the patient grows. Such solution potentially allows avoiding the repeated valve replacement procedures that would be required when traditional valve is implanted. The aim of this study was to design nine different pulmonary valve models based on the concept of expandable heart valve apparatus for paediatric application, and to test their performance through Computational Fluid Dynamic simulation using Finite Volume Method. The obtained results including pressure distribution, velocity and wall shear stress were analysed, and the optimal heart valve model was recommended.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

msc

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters-pg

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Strathclyde

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Twardowska, Ewelina

DOI

10.48730/yegv-rr57

Identifier

T13911

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:strathclyde:1z40ks85c