Relationship between mechanical and hydrodynamic properties of bioprosthesis produced from canine aortic valve

Static tensile, stress relaxation, and hydrodynamic tests were carried out to investigate the relationships between the mechanical deformation or stiffness of heart valve leaflets and the opening behavior of bioprosthetic valves. The specimens used were fresh and glutaraldehyde (GA)-treated canine aortic valves. The tensile strength depended on the fiber orientation in the leaflet. The deformability of fresh and 0.05% GA-treated tissues was significantly larger than that induced by 0.1-5.0% GA concentrations according to the stress-strain curves. The stress relaxation function, which expresses the viscoelastic property, did not show significant differences in the 0.05-5.0% range of GA concentrations. In the hydrodynamic tests, the opening resistance of fresh and 0.05% GA-treated valves was less than that of 0.1-5.0% GA-treated valves. Thus, it was shown that the hydrodynamic valve functions were closely related to the material properties of aortic valve leaflets.