Dc. Gloeckner et al., Effects of mechanical fatigue on the bending properties of the porcine bioprosthetic heart valve, ASAIO J, 45(1), 1999, pp. 59-63
The mechanisms underlying the failure of porcine bioprosthetic aortic heart
valves are not well understood. One possible explanation is that delaminat
ions of the layered leaflet structure occur through flexion, leading to cal
cification and further delaminations, and finally resulting in valve failur
e. We investigated the changes in flexural rigidity of the belly of aortic
valve cusps subjected to accelerated durability testing. We used three-poin
t bending wherein a load was applied to the center of each specimen by a th
in stainless steel bar calibrated to a known load-displacement relationship
. Ten circumferential and 15 radial specimens from valves fatigued to 0, 50
, 100, and 200 million cycles were flexed both with and against the curvatu
re of the cusp. Linear beam theory was applied as a means to compare the re
lative bending stiffness between groups. Although specimens aligned to the
circumferential direction were stiffer when bent against the cuspal curvatu
re, the radial oriented specimens exhibited no bending directional dependen
ce. Both the radial and circumferential specimens experienced a significant
decrease in the bending stiffness with an increased number of accelerated
test cycles. Overall, our results suggest that it is the fibrosa that exper
iences the greatest loss of stiffness with mechanically induced fatigue dam
age.