Aortic Valve Sinus Vorticity Dynamics and the Potential Role of Coronary Flow

Calcific aortic valve disease affects a wide range of the population in the United States. Each year there are approximately 50,000 valve replacements due to this disease [(Freeman & Otto, 2005)]. While it is unclear what the exact causes of CAVD are, it does appear to be correlated to local hemodynamic conditions particularly related to the complex spatio-temporal nature of fluid wall shear stress dynamics that the aortic side of the leaflets experience.