סמינר של בית הספר להנדסה מכאנית

יום ב' 19 בבמרץ 2012, שעה 15:00,

חדר 206, בניין וולפסון להנדסה מכאנית

Prof. Ajit P. Yoganathan

Surgical Repair of the Mitral Valve: In-vitro Engineering Studies

Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in Biomedical Engineering

Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Approximately 7.9 million Americans suffer from heart failure every year of which nearly 2.5 million develop Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation (IMR). Even with such high prevalence, little is known of the cause and progression of chronic IMR, resulting in the current lack of effective medical options for these patients. Current surgical repair techniques lack long-term durability leading to recurrence of IMR in < 5 years and hence re-operation. Understanding the hemodynamic function and biomechanics of the valve under normal, pathological and post-repair conditions would help us understand the pathological implications on valve function and also the reasons for failure of current repair techniques. Native porcine mitral valves were used in a novel in-vitro left-heart simulator that can generate in-vivo physiological and pathological hemodynamic conditions. The simulator is designed to impose precise geometric perturbations on the mitral valve both at the annular and sub-valvular levels and also allows the simulation of various surgical repair techniques on these geometrically perturbed valves. The hemodynamic function and biomechanics of the valve are quantified under different physiological and patho-physiological conditions, using state-of-the-art instrumentation and imaging procedures. The in-vitro left heart simulator and “mitral valve model” can thus be used for studying/understanding the physiology and biomechanics of various mitral valve diseases. It can also serve as a low-cost experimental test-bed for evaluating the feasibility and efficacy of novel mitral valve surgical repair techniques. The in   vitro studies are synergistically coupled with in vivo animal studies.