Mechanical guides for controlling leaflet folding behavior during crimping

A method of crimping a transcatheter valve prosthesis onto a delivery system, comprising:

• positioning a transcatheter valve prosthesis onto an inner shaft of a delivery system, the transcatheter valve prosthesis including a stent and a prosthetic valve component including at least one leaflet disposed within and secured to the stent, wherein the transcatheter valve prosthesis is in an expanded configuration;
• positioning a crimper over the transcatheter valve prosthesis in the expanded configuration;
• positioning a leaflet folding accessory at least partially within the transcatheter valve prosthesis, the leaflet folding accessory including a plurality of guide fingers, at least a portion of each guide finger being positioned to contact an inner surface of a leaflet of the prosthetic valve component and hold the leaflet in an open state against an inner surface of the stent;
• operating the crimper to compress the transcatheter valve prosthesis into a crimped configuration for delivery within a vasculature, wherein the leaflet folding accessory remains positioned such that all guide fingers of the leaflet folding accessory are radially disposed entirely within the at least one leaflet and are positioned not contact an outer surface of the at least one leaflet;
• and
• removing the leaflet folding accessory from within the transcatheter valve prosthesis.