every year more than 150.000 patients throughout the world receive heart valve replacement.
but despite research efforts since the 1960s the ideal prosthetic solution is not yet found.
mechanical prostheses have good long-term durability but patients need lifelong anticoagulation
treatment. bioprostheses on the other hand do not give rise to such a necessity but lack in
long-term stability.
further developments in prosthetic design require an in-depth knowledge of the mechanics of heart valves.
while experiments on the subject give insight to some extent, accurate results under
physiological conditions are
difficult to obtain since all such experiments inevitably alter these conditions. computer models
of heart valves can fill this gap and deepen understanding of the functioning heart valve.
Thorsten M. Koch has developed a finite element computer model of the aortic heart valve
for his MSc degree in applied mathematics at the
University of Cape Town.
