Authors: Sacks M.S.¹; Chuong C.J.²

Source: Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Volume 26, Number 5, September 1998 , pp. 892-902(11)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

To facilitate bioprosthetic heart valve design, especially in the use of novel antimineralization chemical technologies, a thorough understanding of the multiaxial mechanical properties of chemically treated bovine pericardium (BP) is needed. In this study, we utilized a small angle light scattering based tissue pre-sorting procedure to select BP specimens with a high degree of structural uniformity. Both conventional glutaraldehyde (GL) and photo-oxidation (PO) chemical treatment groups were studied, with untreated tissue used as the control group. A second set of GL and PO groups was prepared by prestretching them along the preferred fiber direction during the chemical treatment. An extensive biaxial test protocol was used and the resulting stress-strain data fitted to an exponential strain energy function. The high structural uniformity resulted in both a consistent mechanical response and low variability in the material constants. For free fixed tissues, the strain energy per unit volume for GL treated BP was times that of PO treated BP at an equibiaxial Green’s strain level of 0.16. Prestretched tissues exhibited a profound increase in both stiffness and the degree of anisotropy, with the GL treatment demonstrating a greater effect. Thus, structural control leads to an improved understanding of chemically treated BP mechanical properties. Judicious use of this knowledge can facilitate the design and enhanced long-term performance of bioprosthetic heart valves. © 1998 Biomedical Engineering Society. PAC98: 8790+y, 8745Bp, 8780+s

Keywords: Chemical fixation; Constitutive modeling; Bioprostheses; Heart valves; Small angle light scattering; Mechanical properties; Pericardium: mechanical properties

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1114/1.135

Affiliations: 1: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 2: Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX

Publication date: 1998-09-01

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