Analysis of regurgitation, mean systolic pressure drop and energy losses for two artificial aortic valves.

The work reported here is related to the hydrodynamic performance of a Jellyfish valve and St Vincent valve in terms of total energy losses, mean systolic pressure drop and regurgitation. The in vitro experimental investigation was conducted at cardiac outputs of 3.5, 4.5 and 6.51 min-1 across the two valves and under pulsatile flow condition. It was found that the closure volume of the St Vincent valve was about 2.5 times higher than that of the Jellyfish valve. The total back flow losses on the other hand were found to be in the range of 36.5 to 107.1 and 85.5 to 192.5 mJ for the Jellyfish valve and St Vincent valve respectively. Moreover, the mean systolic pressure drop of the St Vincent valve was found to be higher than that of the Jellyfish valve. However, for all the operating conditions tested here, the Jellyfish valve showed superior hydrodynamic performance in terms of backflow and mean systolic pressure as well as energy losses.