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Updated: Nov 27, 2025

Upper-extremity Approach for Secondary Access in Transfemoral Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation
Published on: August 8, 2025
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Thrombogenesis: A Foreign Materials Perspective
Md Tausif Salim1, Vahid Sadri2, Priya Nair2
1School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 387 Technology Circle NW, Technology Enterprise Park, Suite 200, Atlanta, GA, 30313, USA.
Purpose:
The initiation of thrombus formation in transcatheter aortic valves (TAVs) is not well understood. The foreign material components of a TAV may play a key role in TAV thrombogenesis. The goal of this study was to evaluate the thrombogenic potential of a TAV (entire valve) and its stent (with skirt).
Methods:
Blood was collected from eight human donors with citrate anticoagulation and later reconstituted with calcium chloride. A low-volume steady flow loop (flow rate = 0.8 L/min) was designed to facilitate three separate conditions (experimental duration = 1 h) per donor blood: (1) control (n = 8), (2) stent-with-skirt (leaflets removed from a 23 mm SAPIEN XT valve; n = 8) and (3) entire valve (an intact 23 mm SAPIEN XT valve; n = 8). Samples were collected at the start and end of each experiment. Serum D-Dimer and thrombin-antithrombin (TAT) concentrations were measured as markers of thrombogenicity.
Results:
There was no significant change in serum D-Dimer and TAT concentration with time for the control group. An increasing trend in D-Dimer and TAT concentration was observed with time for the stent-with-skirt group. Interestingly, there was a decreasing trend in serum D-Dimer and TAT concentration with time for the entire valve (leaflet dominating) group. Moreover, changes in D-Dimer and TAT concentration were significantly different between the stent-with-skirt and entire valve (leaflet dominating) groups.
Conclusion:
Stent-with-skirt was found to impart the most prominent thrombogenic effect, indicating the significance of blood-stent and blood-skirt interactions in TAV thrombosis.
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