Key result
Accelerated cyclic loading to 200 million cycles alters textile valve structure and mechanical properties.
Why the study?
The durability of synthetic textile valve leaflets under cyclic loading is uncertain, and early fatigue performance data are needed to assess their potential as cost-effective alternatives to biological valves.
In vitro testing of textile heart valve prototypes up to 200 million cycles reveals structural rearrangements and mechanical modifications, highlighting the need for extended durability testing before clinical application.
Textile valve prototypes require extended durability testing before clinical translation; leaves open long-term performance implications beyond 200 million cycles.
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement has become today a largely considered alternative technique to surgical valve replacement in patients with high risk for open chest surgery. Biological valve tissue used in the transcatheter devices has shown success over 5 years now, but the procedure remains expensive. Moreover, different studies point out potential degradations that the tissue can undergo when folded to lower diameter and released in calcified environment with irregular geometry, which may jeopardize the durability of the device. The use of synthetic materials, like textile in particular, to replace biological valve leaflets would help reducing the procedure costs, and limit the degradations when the valve is crimped. Textile polyester material has been extensively used in the vascular surgery and is characterized by outstanding folding and strength properties combined with proven biocompatibility. However, the friction effects that occur between filaments and between yarns within a fabric under flexure loading could be critical for the resistance of the material on the long term. The purpose of this study was to assess the early fatigue performances of textile valve prototypes under accelerated cyclic loading up to 200 Mio cycles. Durability tests show that the fibrous material undergoes rearrangements between fibrous elements within the textile construction and the mechanical properties are modified on the long term. But testing is not complete with 200 Mio cycles. The material should be tested up to a higher number of cycles in future work to test the effective long-term durability.
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Vaesken et al. (2015) studied Transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Textile valve prototypes was evaluated on Early fatigue performances under accelerated cyclic loading. Textile valve prototypes subjected to accelerated cyclic loading up to 200 million cycles underwent structural rearrangements and mechanical property modifications.
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