Prosthetic heart valve
AssigneeinQB8 Medical Technologies, LLC
InventorsJ. Brent Ratz, Arshad Quadri, Christopher Stivers
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein are prosthetic heart valves and methods for improving the functionality of native heart valves. An exemplary prosthetic heart valve may include one or more support structures, in which at least one support structure defines an elongate central passageway having a longitudinal. The prosthetic heart valve may include a plurality of leaflet elements attached to the at least one support structure and disposed within the elongate central passageway for control of blood flow through the elongate central passageway. The at least one support structure may be configured to biodynamically fix the prosthetic heart valve to native leaflets of a native heart valve of a heart.
Claims24
A prosthetic heart valve, comprising:
- a support structure, wherein the support structure defines an elongate central passageway, wherein the support structure comprises one or more atrial arms, one or more ventricular arms, and a third set of arms;
- a plurality of leaflet elements attached to the support structure and disposed within the elongate central passageway for control of blood flow through the elongate central passageway;
- a cover formed separately from the support structure and supported by the third set of arms, the cover configured to contact a native leaflet of a native heart valve of a heart and reduce leakage around the prosthetic heart valve,
- wherein the support structure is configured to biodynamically fix the prosthetic heart valve to the native leaflet of the native heart valve of the heart and is not fixed to a native annulus of the native heart valve of the heart,
- wherein the one or more atrial arms and the one or more ventricular arms extend across a cross-sectional plane of a cylindrical portion of the support structure such that:
- a distal segment of the one or more atrial arms and a distal segment of the one or more ventricular arms extend perpendicularly away from a central axis of the elongate central passageway and contact opposing sides of each native leaflet at locations radially inward from the native annulus such that at least a portion of each native leaflet is held radially away from the native annulus thereby permitting axial motion of the cylindrical portion of the support structure and the portion of each native leaflet, relative to the native annulus, and
- wherein, during biodynamic movement of the prosthetic heart valve within the native heart valve during cardiac cycles of the heart, the ventricular arms are configured to resist the movement while the atrial arms maintain contact with native leaflets and/or the atrial arms resist the movement while the ventricular arms maintain contact with the native leaflets, such that systolic and/or diastolic pressure load is at least partially absorbed by the motion of the native leaflets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.