Artificial heart valve

A heart contains four valves (tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral and aortic valves) which open and close as blood passes through the heart. Blood enters the heart in the right atrium and passes through the tricuspid valve to the right ventricle. From there, blood is pumped through the pulmonary valve to enter the lungs. After being oxygenated, blood passes to the left atrium, where is it pumped through the mitral valve to the left ventricle. The left ventricle pumps blood to the aorta through the aortic valve. There are many potential causes of heart valve damage, such as birth defects, age related changes, and effects from other disorders, such as rheumatic fever and infections causing endocarditis. High blood pressure and heart failure which can enlarge the heart and arteries, and scar tissue can form after a heart attack or injury. The three main types of artificial heart valves are mechanical, biological (bioprosthetic/tissue), and tissue-engineered valves. In the US, UK and the European Union, the most common type of artificial heart valve is the bioprosthetic valve. Mechanical valves are more commonly used in Asia and Latin America. Companies that manufacture heart valves include Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, Abbott (St. Jude Medical), CryoLife, and LifeNet Health. ==Mechanical valves==

Mechanical valves come in three main types – caged ball, tilting-disc and bileaflet – with various modifications on these designs. Caged ball valves are no longer implanted. Bileaflet valves are the most common type of mechanical valve implanted in patients today. First transplants The first artificial heart valve was a clear plastic tube with a free-moving ball, trapped between restrictions at the inlet and outlet. The early ball check valve design opened when the heart contracted and the blood pressure in the chamber exceeded the heart's outside pressure, allowing blood to flow. When the heart finished contracting, the pressure inside the chamber dropped, allowing the ball to move back against the base of the valve to form a seal. Charles A. Hufnagel implanted his tube and ball design into ten patients (six of whom survived the operation) in 1952, marking the first heart valve transplant with limited success. For the next 8 years, Hufnagel transplants continued. However, the design was never proven or adopted as a reliable medical treatment. Miles 'Lowell' Edwards is recognized as the first to invent a truly successful heart valve. His design relied on a patented, caged-ball check valve. Edwards' design was surgically implanted by Albert Starr for the first time in 1960 and was successfully used to save heart patients around the world for the next 47 years. The design consisted of a silicone ball enclosed in a methyl metacrylate cage welded to a ring. Edward's invention is known today as the Starr-Edwards valve, which continues to provide life-saving service for many heart patients treated before 2007. The Starr-Edwards valve set a record for providing a patient 48 years of service before requiring replacement. Mechanical heart valves, such as the Star-Edwards Valve, are strongly associated with blood clot formation and require a high dose of anticoagulant, usually with a target INR of 3.0–4.5. In 2007 the Starr-Edwards Valve was retired and replaced by Edwards Lifesciences with the Edwards Myxo ETlogix annuloplasty ring. Tilting-disc valves Introduced in 1969, the first clinically available tilting-disc valve was the Bjork-Shiley valve. Tilting‑disc valves, a type of swing check valve, are made of a metal ring covered by an ePTFE fabric. The metal ring holds, by means of two metal supports, a disc that opens when the heart beats to let blood flow through, then closes again to prevent blood flowing backwards. The disc is usually made of an extremely hard carbon material (pyrolytic carbon), enabling the valve to function for years without wearing out. Bileaflet valves Introduced in 1979, bileaflet valves are made of two semicircular leaflets that revolve around struts attached to the valve housing. With a larger opening than caged ball or tilting-disc valves, they carry a lower risk of blood clots. They are, however, vulnerable to blood backflow. Advantages of mechanical valves The major advantage of mechanical valves over bioprosthetic valves is their greater durability. Made from metal and/or pyrolytic carbon, so cavitation testing is an essential part of the valve design verification process. Many of the complications associated with mechanical heart valves can be explained through fluid mechanics. For example, blood clot formation is a side effect of high shear stresses created by the design of the valves. From an engineering perspective, an ideal heart valve would produce minimal pressure drops, have small regurgitation volumes, minimize turbulence, reduce prevalence of high stresses, and not create flow separations in the vicinity of the valve. Implanted mechanical valves can cause foreign body rejection. The blood may coagulate and eventually result in a hemostasis. The usage of anticoagulation drugs will be interminable to prevent thrombosis. ==Bioprosthetic tissue valves==

Bioprosthetic valves are usually made from animal tissue (heterograft/xenograft) attached to a metal or polymer support. The tissue is treated to prevent rejection and calcification. Alternatives to animal tissue valves are sometimes used, where valves are used from human donors, as in aortic homografts and pulmonary autografts. An aortic homograft is an aortic valve from a human donor, retrieved either after their death or from a heart that is removed to be replaced during a heart transplant. This means that people with bioprosthetic valves have a higher incidence of requiring another aortic valve replacement in their lifetime. In recent years, scientists have developed a new tissue preservation technology, with the aim of improving the durability of bioprosthetic valves. In sheep and rabbit studies, tissue preserved using this new technology had less calcification than control tissue. A valve containing this tissue is now marketed, but long-term durability data in patients are not yet available. Current bioprosthetic valves lack longevity, and will calcify over time. When a valve calcifies, the valve cusps become stiff and thick and cannot close completely. Moreover, bioprosthetic valves can't grow with or adapt to the patient: if a child has bioprosthetic valves they will need to get the valves replaced several times to fit their physical growth. == Tissue-engineered valves ==

For over 30 years researchers have been trying to grow heart valves in vitro. These tissue‑engineered valves involve seeding human cells on to a scaffold. The scaffold acts as an extracellular matrix, guiding tissue growth into the correct 3D structure of the heart valve. 3D printing is used because of its high accuracy and precision of dealing with different biomaterials. Scientists can follow the structure of heart valves to produce something that looks similar to them, but since tissue engineered valves lack the natural cellular basis, they either fail to perform their functions like natural heart valves, or function when they are implanted but gradually degrade over time. An ideal tissue engineered heart valve would be non-thrombogenic, biocompatible, durable, resistant to calcification, grow with the surrounding heart, and exhibit a physiological hemodynamic profile. To achieve these goals, the scaffold should be carefully chosen—there are three main candidates: decellularized ECM (xenografts or homografts), natural polymers, and synthetic polymers. == Differences between mechanical and tissue valves ==

Mechanical and tissue valves are made of different materials. Mechanical valves are generally made of titanium and carbon. Tissue valves are made up of human or animal tissue. The valves composed of human tissue, known as allografts or homografts, are from donors' human hearts. Mechanical valves can be a better choice for younger people and people at risk of valve deterioration due to its durability. It is also preferable for people who are already taking blood thinners and people who would be unlikely to tolerate another valve replacement operation. Tissue valves are better for older age groups as another valve replacement operation may not be needed in their lifetime. Due to the risk of forming blood clots for mechanical valves and severe bleeding as a major side effect of taking blood-thinning medications, people who have a risk of bleeding and are not willing to take warfarin may also consider tissue valves. Other patients who may be more suitable for tissue valves are people who have other planned surgeries and unable to take blood-thinning medications. People who plan to become pregnant may also consider tissue valves as warfarin causes risks in pregnancy. == Functional requirements of artificial heart valves ==

An artificial heart valve should ideally function like a natural heart valve. However, several heart valve pathologies (e.g. rheumatic endocarditis) may lead to clinically significant valvular regurgitation. A desirable characteristic of heart valve prostheses is that regurgitation is minimal over the full range of physiological heart function. • Minimal transvalvular pressure gradient – Whenever a fluid flows through a restriction, such as a valve, a pressure gradient arises over the restriction. This pressure gradient is a result of the increased resistance to flow through the restriction. Natural heart valves have a low transvalvular pressure gradient as they present little obstruction to the flow through themselves, normally less than 16 mmHg. A desirable characteristic of heart valve prostheses is that their transvalvular pressure gradient is as small as possible. • Non-thrombogenic – Natural heart valves are lined with an endothelium comparable with the endothelium lining the heart chambers, so they are not normally thrombogenic (i.e. they don't cause blood clots). Blood clots can be hazardous because they can lodge in, and block, downstream arteries (e.g. coronary arteries, leading to heart attack [myocardial infarction]; or cerebral arteries, leading to stroke). A desirable characteristic of artificial heart valves is that they are non- or minimally thrombogenic. • Self-repairing – Valve leaflets retain some capacity for repair thanks to regenerative cells (e.g. fibroblasts) in the connective tissue from which the leaflets are composed. As the human heart beats approximately 3.4 billion times during a typical human lifespan, this limited but nevertheless present repair capacity is critically important. No heart valve prostheses can currently self-repair, but tissue-engineered valves may eventually offer such capabilities. == Artificial heart valve repair ==

Artificial heart valves are expected to last from 10 to 30 years. Researchers are investigating Interchangeable Prosthetic Heart Valve that allows redo and fast-track repair of an artificial heart valve. ==Additional images==

File:Blausen 0056 ArtificialHeartValve.png|3D Rendering of Mechanical Valve File:Blausen 0057 ArtificialHeartValve StFrancis.png|3D Rendering of Mechanical Valve (St. Francis model) == See also ==