Prosthetic Heart Valve Stent Segmentation for Secure Anchoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing percutaneous heart valve replacement techniques face challenges in providing minimally invasive solutions that prevent migration of implanted valves and minimize leaflet abrasion, while maintaining effective anchoring and sealing.
Innovation Solution
The development of stents with various configurations, including self-expanding and balloon-expandable designs, that can be compressed for delivery and expanded at the implant site, featuring wire arrangements to reduce leaflet abrasion and enhance anchoring through flared ends, central bulbous regions, and adjustable orientations to align with native anatomy, allowing for secure fixation and reduced migration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional percutaneous valve replacement techniques are used, then minimally invasive valve replacement is achieved, but valve migration and leaflet abrasion occur
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is divided into multiple segments including anchoring segments with barbs at the ends and a central segment with a bulbous region. This segmentation allows different portions of the stent to perform specialized functions: the barbed ends anchor in the aortic wall while the bulbous central region provides sealing and prevents migration, resolving the contradiction between minimally invasive delivery and reliable valve fixation.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the stent are given different geometric properties tailored to their specific functions. The ends have barbs for anchoring in the aortic wall, the central region has a bulbous expansion for sealing against the annulus, and the wire arrangement is optimized in different zones. This local differentiation enables reliable migration prevention while maintaining minimally invasive delivery capabilities.
2Reliability
If stent expansion is used for anchoring, then valve fixation is achieved, but leaflet abrasion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The stent incorporates a bulbous central region that expands in a dimension perpendicular to the valve leaflets, creating a sealing surface against the aortic annulus. This dimensional addition provides anchoring and sealing functionality without requiring radial expansion that would contact and abrade the leaflets, thus resolving the contradiction between secure fixation and leaflet protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The bulbous central region acts as an intermediary between the stent structure and the aortic annulus, providing the anchoring and sealing function. This intermediate structure absorbs the mechanical stress of fixation, preventing direct contact between the expanding stent and the vulnerable valve leaflets, thereby reducing leaflet abrasion while maintaining reliable anchoring.
3Ease of operation
If stent is compressed for delivery, then percutaneous access is enabled, but anchoring capability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The stent is designed with dynamic geometric features including barbs and a bulbous region that are compressed during delivery but expand and become functional after implantation. The barbs fold inward during compression for percutaneous delivery, then unfold and engage the aortic wall upon expansion. Similarly, the bulbous central region compresses for delivery and expands to provide sealing and anchoring, resolving the contradiction between deliverability and anchoring capability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The stents provide effective, minimally invasive heart valve replacement by reducing leaflet wear and migration risks, ensuring secure anchoring, and maintaining functional alignment with native heart structures.
Implementation Method 1
The support structure is compressed onto itself and the balloon, thus defining a decreased inner diameter as compared to an inner diameter in an expanded state
Implementation Method 2
The replacement valve is mounted on a balloon catheter and delivered percutaneously via the vascular system to the location of the failed pulmonary valve and expanded by the balloon to compress the valve leaflets against the right ventricular outflow tract
Implementation Method 3
These techniques rely at least partially upon a frictional type of engagement between the expanded support structure and the native tissue to maintain a position of the delivered prosthesis
Data Source
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AI summary
A stented valve including a stent structure including a generally tubular body portion that has a first end and a second end, wherein an area adjacent the first end has a first stiffness, an area adjacent the second end has a second stiffness, and a central region between the areas at the first and second ends has a third stiffness that is less than the stiffness adjacent the first and second ends, wherein the stent structure can be reconfigured in its central area to match a curved patient anatomical region. The stented valve further includes a valve structure attached within the generally tubular portion.