TY - JOUR
T1 - An investigation of regional variations in the biaxial mechanical properties and stress relaxation behaviors of porcine atrioventricular heart valve leaflets
AU - Laurence, Devin
AU - Ross, Colton
AU - Jett, Samuel
AU - Johns, Cortland
AU - Echols, Allyson
AU - Baumwart, Ryan
AU - Towner, Rheal
AU - Liao, Jun
AU - Bajona, Pietro
AU - Wu, Yi
AU - Lee, Chung Hao
N1 - Funding Information:
Support from the American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant (SDG) Award (16SDG27760143) is gratefully acknowledged. CHL was in part supported by the institutional start-up funds from the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) and the research funding through the Faculty Investment Program from the Research Council at the University of Oklahoma (OU). DL, CR, and SJ were supported by the Mentored Research Fellowship from the Office of Undergraduate Research at OU. DL and CR were supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program from the Honors College at OU. We also acknowledge undergraduate researchers Jacob Richardson and Ryan Bodlak for their assistance with the biaxial mechanical testing.
Funding Information:
Support from the American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant (SDG) Award ( 16SDG27760143 ) is gratefully acknowledged. CHL was in part supported by the institutional start-up funds from the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) and the research funding through the Faculty Investment Program from the Research Council at the University of Oklahoma (OU). DL, CR, and SJ were supported by the Mentored Research Fellowship from the Office of Undergraduate Research at OU. DL and CR were supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program from the Honors College at OU. We also acknowledge undergraduate researchers Jacob Richardson and Ryan Bodlak for their assistance with the biaxial mechanical testing.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/1/23
Y1 - 2019/1/23
N2 - The facilitation of proper blood flow through the heart depends on proper function of heart valve components, and alterations to any component can lead to heart disease or failure. Comprehension of these valvular diseases is reliant on thorough characterization of healthy heart valve structures for use in computational models. Previously, computational models have treated these leaflet structures as a structurally and mechanically homogenous material, which may not be an accurate description of leaflet mechanical response. In this study, we aimed to characterize the mechanics of the heart valve leaflet as a structurally heterogenous material. Specifically, porcine mitral valve and tricuspid valve anterior leaflets were sectioned into six regions and biaxial mechanical tests with various loading ratios and stress-relaxation test were performed on each regional tissue sample. Three main findings from this study were summarized as follows: (i) the central regions of the leaflet had a more anisotropic nature than edge regions, (ii) the mitral valve anterior leaflet was more extensible in regions closer to the annulus, and (iii) there was variance in the stress-relaxation behavior among all six regions, with mitral valve leaflet tissue regions exhibiting a greater decay than the tricuspid valve regions. This study presents a novel investigation of the regional variations in the heart valve biomechanics that has not been comprehensively examined. Our results thus allow for a refinement of computational models for more accurately predicting diseased or surgically-intervened condition, where tissue heterogeneity plays an essential role in the heart valve function.
AB - The facilitation of proper blood flow through the heart depends on proper function of heart valve components, and alterations to any component can lead to heart disease or failure. Comprehension of these valvular diseases is reliant on thorough characterization of healthy heart valve structures for use in computational models. Previously, computational models have treated these leaflet structures as a structurally and mechanically homogenous material, which may not be an accurate description of leaflet mechanical response. In this study, we aimed to characterize the mechanics of the heart valve leaflet as a structurally heterogenous material. Specifically, porcine mitral valve and tricuspid valve anterior leaflets were sectioned into six regions and biaxial mechanical tests with various loading ratios and stress-relaxation test were performed on each regional tissue sample. Three main findings from this study were summarized as follows: (i) the central regions of the leaflet had a more anisotropic nature than edge regions, (ii) the mitral valve anterior leaflet was more extensible in regions closer to the annulus, and (iii) there was variance in the stress-relaxation behavior among all six regions, with mitral valve leaflet tissue regions exhibiting a greater decay than the tricuspid valve regions. This study presents a novel investigation of the regional variations in the heart valve biomechanics that has not been comprehensively examined. Our results thus allow for a refinement of computational models for more accurately predicting diseased or surgically-intervened condition, where tissue heterogeneity plays an essential role in the heart valve function.
KW - Biaxial mechanical testing
KW - Heart valve biomechanics
KW - Regional mechanical properties
KW - The mitral valve
KW - The tricuspid valve
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85057097159&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2018.11.015
DO - 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2018.11.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 30497683
AN - SCOPUS:85057097159
SN - 0021-9290
VL - 83
SP - 16
EP - 27
JO - Journal of Biomechanics
JF - Journal of Biomechanics
ER -