Key result
In vitro testing of woven polyester fabrics under physiological fluid flow demonstrated changes in flexural properties over fatigue time, informing design criteria for textile heart valves.
In vitro testing of woven polyester fabrics under physiological conditions provides data on flexural property changes over time, informing the design of textile-based percutaneous heart valves.
Flexural shifts in polyester merit design consideration for textile valves; leaves open in vivo durability and clinical translation.
The rapid development and success of percutaneous vascular surgery over the last two decades, with the now common stent graft implantation, make this non-invasive technique attractive today even for heart valve replacement. Less traumatic for the patient and also less time consuming, this technique is however in its infancy and restricted to advanced age or terminally ill patients. A major requirement for the use of the method is that the heart valve prosthesis is flexible enough to be folded into the lumen of a small diameter catheter. A standard material used for the construction of arterial grafts and which could also be suitable for engineering heart valve prosthesis is polyester textile fabric. However no data is available in the published technical literature on the long-term durability of this or any other fabric used as a heart valve. The purpose of this research is to study the long-term fatigue behavior of woven polyester fabrics of different yarn and construction factors. In the novel in vitro technique used, a fabric specimen is subjected to combined flexural and tensile fatigue generated by fluid flow under physiological heart valve working conditions. The results obtained show how flexural properties change with fatigue time, which reflects directly on the suitability of a given fabric in such devices. The results also show trends that one can use to develop criteria for designing a fabric most highly suited for use in heart valve application.
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Heim et al. (2009) studied this question. Woven polyester fabrics was evaluated on Flexural properties and fatigue behavior. In vitro testing of woven polyester fabrics under physiological fluid flow demonstrated changes in flexural properties over fatigue time, informing design criteria for textile heart valves.
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