In Vitro Study of the Influence of the Aortic Root Geometry on Flow Characteristics of a Prosthetic Heart Valve

In this paper, performance of aortic heart valve prosthesis in different geometries of the aortic root is investigated experimentally. The objective of this investigation is to establish a set of parameters, which are associated with abnormal flow patterns due to the flow through a prosthetic heart valve implanted to the patients that had certain types of valve diseases prior to the valve replacement. Specific valve diseases, classified into two clinical categories, were correlated with the corresponding changes of aortic root geometry. These categories correspond to aortic valve stenosis and aortic valve insufficiency. The control case that corresponds to the aortic root of a patient without valve disease was used as a reference. Experiments were performed at test conditions corresponding to 70 beats/min, 5.5 L/min target cardiac output and a mean aortic pressure of 100 mmHg. By varying the aortic root geometry, it was possible to investigate corresponding changes in the levels of Reynolds shear stress and establish the possibility of platelet activation and, as a result of that, the formation of blood clots.