It is well-known that surgical bioprosthetic heart valves are plagued with limited durability, with failure resulting from leaflet structural deterioration due to mechanical fatigue and/or tissue mineralization. Since the transcathete aortic valve (TAV) is made of similar biomaterials and acts as an alternative to a surgical bioprosthetic valve in the same anatomic position, we postulate that biomechanical damage also plays a major role in limiting TAV durability. Furthermore, due to the fact that the TAV has to be crimped into a small diameter catheter for valve delivery, design of a TAV is subjected to more constraints that may further impede its long-term durability. In this early, ye rapidly advancing stage of TAV development, we believe that identifying critical biomechanical factors that may lead to TAV device malfunction is of paramount importance, as it may result in the immediate improvement of the TAV design, prevention of disastrous device failure (due to high stress concentration, for example), and consequently better clinical outcomes for patients. In this project, our objective is to perform engineering structural analysis of transcatheter aortc valve devices, and compare with that of a clinically-proved surgical bioprosthetic valve to identify biomechanical factors that may cause TAV malfunction and offer mechanistic insights for TAV design improvement. To achieve our objective, the following specific aims are proposed: 1) quantification of TAV leaflet tissue mechanical properties; 2) development of TAV computational models with a variety of design variables. A novel valve virtual assembly method will be applied to construct 3D computational models of the TAV. The computational models will be validated by valve deformation experiments using physical TAV devices, 3) Engineering structural analysis of TAV deformation to identify biomechanical factors that may cause TAV malfunction. Project milestones are to: 1) establish databases of TAV leaflet tissue properties and TAV computational models; 2) identify TAV biomechanical damage factors and 3) at the conclusion, offer engineering rationale for a better TAV design.

Public Health Relevance

This research is relevant to a minimally invasive treatment of aortic valve disease, in particular for high-risk patients who cannot undergo open-heart surgery. In the project, we will perform an engineering analysis of transcatheter valve devices to evaluate their structural performance so that a safer, better valve device can be designed.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project #
1R21HL108240-01A1
Application #
8445808
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SBIB-Q (80))
Program Officer
Baldwin, Tim
Project Start
2013-02-01
Project End
2015-01-31
Budget Start
2013-02-01
Budget End
2014-01-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$192,544
Indirect Cost
$67,544
Name
University of Connecticut
Department
Engineering (All Types)
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
614209054
City
Storrs-Mansfield
State
CT
Country
United States
Zip Code
06269
Murdock, Kyle; Martin, Caitlin; Sun, Wei (2018) Characterization of mechanical properties of pericardium tissue using planar biaxial tension and flexural deformation. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 77:148-156
Sirois, Eric; Mao, Wenbin; Li, Kewei et al. (2018) Simulated Transcatheter Aortic Valve Flow: Implications of Elliptical Deployment and Under-Expansion at the Aortic Annulus. Artif Organs 42:E141-E152
Caballero, Andrés; Sulejmani, Fatiesa; Martin, Caitlin et al. (2017) Evaluation of transcatheter heart valve biomaterials: Biomechanical characterization of bovine and porcine pericardium. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 75:486-494
Liang, Liang; Liu, Minliang; Sun, Wei (2017) A deep learning approach to estimate chemically-treated collagenous tissue nonlinear anisotropic stress-strain responses from microscopy images. Acta Biomater 63:227-235
Martin, Caitlin; Sun, Wei (2017) Transcatheter Valve Underexpansion Limits Leaflet Durability: Implications for Valve-in-Valve Procedures. Ann Biomed Eng 45:394-404
Dasi, Lakshmi P; Hatoum, Hoda; Kheradvar, Arash et al. (2017) On the Mechanics of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement. Ann Biomed Eng 45:310-331
Li, Kewei; Sun, Wei (2017) Simulated transcatheter aortic valve deformation: A parametric study on the impact of leaflet geometry on valve peak stress. Int J Numer Method Biomed Eng 33:
Liu, Haofei; Sun, Wei (2017) Numerical Approximation of Elasticity Tensor Associated With Green-Naghdi Rate. J Biomech Eng 139:
Mao, Wenbin; Li, Kewei; Sun, Wei (2016) Fluid-Structure Interaction Study of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Dynamics Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. Cardiovasc Eng Technol 7:374-388
Liu, Haofei; Sun, Wei (2016) Computational efficiency of numerical approximations of tangent moduli for finite element implementation of a fiber-reinforced hyperelastic material model. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin 19:1171-80

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