Artificial Heart Valve Mitral Leaflet Mating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing artificial heart valves face challenges due to their large size, limited lifespan, and reduced mating performance, particularly in the complex mitral valve environment.
Innovation Solution
An artificial heart valve design featuring a main stent and an artificial valve leaflet, where the stent is fixed on the mitral valve annulus above the native posterior leaflet, and the valve leaflet is sealed against the native posterior leaflet and mates with the native anterior leaflet to ensure unidirectional blood flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the artificial valve leaflet is designed to replace the entire mitral valve, then it can provide complete valve function, but it results in large size and reduced mating performance
Solution Approach 1:
The artificial valve leaflet is designed to replace only the posterior leaflet rather than the entire mitral valve, segmenting the replacement function. This reduces the size of the artificial leaflet while maintaining effective valve function by utilizing the native anterior leaflet for coaptation.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges the artificial posterior leaflet with the native anterior leaflet to form a functional bileaflet valve. This combination allows the artificial component to be smaller while still achieving complete valve closure and unidirectional flow.
2Reliability
If the stent is designed to anchor firmly in the mitral valve annulus, then it provides stable fixation, but it increases device complexity and size
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of expanding the stent outward to anchor in the annulus, the stent is designed to anchor by engaging the native posterior leaflet tissue. The anchoring function is inverted from annular engagement to leaflet-based engagement, simplifying the stent structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The stent utilizes the native posterior leaflet tissue itself as the anchoring medium. The leaflet tissue provides the anchoring function, eliminating the need for complex stent anchoring mechanisms and reducing overall device complexity.
3Reliability
If the artificial valve leaflet uses biological materials, then it is more biocompatible, but it has limited lifespan due to mechanical degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses biological material for only the posterior leaflet replacement rather than the entire valve. This partial use of biological material maintains biocompatibility where needed while reducing the overall mechanical stress and degradation concerns compared to full biological valve replacement.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides an artificial heart valve comprising a main stent and an artificial valve leaflet, wherein an outflow end of the main stent is connected to an inflow end of the artificial valve leaflet, and when the artificial heart valve is implanted in the heart, the main stent is fixed on a mitral valve annulus above a native posterior leaflet of mitral valve leaflets, and the artificial valve leaflet is sealed against an inner side of the native posterior leaflet and mates with a native anterior leaflet to ensure a unidirectional flow of blood in the left atrium and the left ventricle; wherein, the artificial valve leaflet comprises a valve leaflet stent and a covering, and wherein the valve leaflet stent is a single-layer three-dimensional stent, and the covering covers the valve leaflet stent. The present invention utilizes the artificial valve leaflet for occupation and mating and effectively utilizes the healthy native anterior leaflet, thereby improving the valve leaflet's mating performance and lifespan. The artificial heart valve of the present invention has a compact structure and a small volume, and after implantation, it only occupies the area where the posterior leaflet is, which has little effect on the heart's function, and occupies a small area of the valve orifice, so the impact of blood flow is small, thereby improving the lifespan of the artificial heart valve.