Numerical assessment of the effect of xenopericardial bioprosthetic heart valve calcifications on its biomechanics

Objective: to conduct a pilot study of the effect of bioprosthetic heart valve leaflet calcification on biomechanics and to identify the «stress in the material – dysfunction» relationship.

Materials and methods. The study’s focus was on two commercially available UniLine bioprosthetic mitral valves sized 26 and 30 (NeoCor, Russia). The samples were subjected to microcomputer tomographic scanning in order to reconstruct calcium volumes. The resulting 3D models were correlated with prostheses of corresponding sizes and projected to the volume of the locking element in the Abaqus/CAE engineering analysis software (Dassault Systemes, France).

Results. According to numerical modeling, the maximum principal stresses increased significantly to 90.8 MPa in the samples, the opening decreased qualitatively, and impact on the prosthetic frame increased. Comparison of stress diagrams of numerical simulation with samples demonstrates the relationship between peak amplitude and rupture and thinning localizations in the flap apparatus.

Conclusion. The work presented demonstrated the findings of a pilot study of the connection between biomechanics in a patient-specific calcified mitral prosthetic heart valve UniLine and macroscopic characterization of explanted samples. The comparative stage showed that stress values correlate with localization of leaflet dysfunction.

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