Analysis of regurgitant jets in natural and bio-prosthetic heart valves

Artificial bio-prosthetic heart valves are prone to fatigue tearing, having a 50% failure rate in ten years. Tears in valves give rise to pulsing reverse flow back through the valve. This is termed regurgitant flow and the resultant jet of blood a regurgitant jet. The regurgitant volume of the jet during the pulsing cycle gives a measure of the severity of the valve defect and clinical significance. Hence, it is important for the cardiologists to be able to quantify this volume. Although the velocity of the regurgitant jet can be determined using Doppler ultrasound, the dimensions of the heart valve lesion cannot be measured directly; hence, the volumetric flow rate cannot be quantified accurately. At present the severity of the regurgitant jet is assessed qualitatively from the intrusion of the jet into the cardiac chamber. In the present study, classical mathematical theories of turbulent jets have been used to describe the velocity distributions for the types of jets expected in defective heart valves and these distributions have been verified experimentally. One of these models has been developed to enable the regurgitant volumetric flow through an axisymmetric orifice of unknown radius to be calculated from the velocity distribution of the jet. This relationship may be used in conjunction with ultrasound techniques to quantify the regurgitant volume within defective artificial heart valve implants. The present study shows that there is a significant difference in the velocity distributions in jets emanating from axisymmetric and high aspect ratio slots.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)