Heart valve prosthesis

A method of percutaneously delivering and deploying a valve prosthesis within a native heart valve comprising:

• tracking a prosthetic valve delivery system through the vasculature to the native heart valve, wherein the prosthetic valve delivery system includes a valve prosthesis having a tubular stent, a prosthetic valve component disposed within and secured to the tubular stent, and at least one positioning element coupled to a distal end of the tubular stent, the at least one positioning element distally extending from the distal end of the tubular stent when the tubular stent is in a compressed configuration and the at least one positioning element including an outer support arm having a first end and a second end coupled to the distal end of the tubular stent with a peak formed between the first and second ends and an inner support arm having a first end and a second end coupled to the distal end of the tubular stent with a peak formed between the first and second ends, the outer and inner support arms extending along the same plane and the inner support arm being disposed within the outer support arm such that the peaks of the inner and outer support arms are aligned and each of the first and second ends of the outer support arm is coupled to the tubular stent at a circumferentially spaced apart location from the respective first and second ends of the inner support arm;
• retracting an outer sheath of the prosthetic valve delivery system to expose the at least one positioning element, wherein each of the outer and inner support arm bends radially outward and then towards an outer surface of the tubular stent such that it translates more than ninety degrees from the compressed configuration to proximally extend from the distal end of the tubular stent and press against a portion of the native heart valve and/or a portion of a native heart wall in order to position the valve prosthesis, wherein the peak of the outer support arm is coupled to the peak of the inner support arm via a connector to ensure that the outer and inner support arms remain in the same plane;
• and
• further retracting the outer sheath to expose the tubular stent, thereby allowing the tubular stent to self-expand into a deployed configuration.