RESUMEN
The development of turbulence after transcatheter aortic valve (TAV) implantation may have detrimental effects on the long-term performance and durability of the valves. The characterization of turbulent flow generated after TAV implantation can provide fundamental insights to enhance implantation techniques. A self-expandable TAV was tested in a pulse replicator and the three-dimensional flow field was extracted by means of tomographic particle image velocimetry. The valve was fixed inside a silicone phantom mimicking the aortic root and the flow field was studied for two different supra-annular axial positions at peak systole. Fluctuating velocities and turbulent kinetic energy were compared between the two implantations. Velocity spectra were derived at different spatial positions in the turbulent wakes to characterize the turbulent flow. The valve presented similar overall flow topology but approximately 8% higher turbulent intensity in the lower implantation. In this configuration, axial views of the valve revealed smaller opening area and more corrugated leaflets during systole, as well as more accentuated pinwheeling during diastole. The difference arose from a lower degree of expansion of the TAV's stent inside the aortic lumen. These results suggest that the degree of expansion of the TAV in-situ is related to the onset of turbulence and that a smaller and less regular opening area might introduce flow instabilities that could be detrimental for the long-term performance of the valve. The present study highlights how implantation mismatches may affect the structure and intensity of the turbulent flow in the aortic root.
RESUMEN
Every year, a quarter million patients receive prosthetic heart valves in aortic valve replacement therapy. Prosthetic heart valves are known to lead to turbulent blood flow. This turbulent flow field may have adverse effects on blood itself, on the aortic wall and on the valve performance. A detailed characterization of the turbulent flow downstream of a valve could yield better understanding of its effect on shear-induced thrombocyte activation, unphysiological wall shear stresses and hemodynamic valve performance. Therefore, computational simulations of the flow past a bioprosthetic heart valve were performed. The computational results were validated against experimental measurements of the turbulent flow field with tomographic particle image velocimetry. The turbulent flow was analyzed for disturbance amplitudes, dissipation rates and shear stress distributions. It was found that approximately 26% of the hydrodynamic resistance of the valve was due to turbulent dissipation and that this dissipation mainly took place in a region about one valve diameter downstream of the valve orifice. Farther downstream, the turbulent fluctuations became weaker which was also reflected in the turbulent velocity spectra of the flow field. Viscous shear stresses were found to be in the range of the critical level for blood platelet activation. The turbulent flow led to elevated shear stress levels along the wall of the ascending aorta with strongly fluctuating and chaotic wall shear stress patterns. Further, we identified leaflet fluttering at 40 Hz which was connected to repeated shedding of vortex rings that appeared to feed the turbulent flow downstream of the valve.