• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 1998

To develop the supplementary heart valve which could reduce the complications of prosthetic heart valve, in vitro experiments were performed to analyze the movement of the supplement valves from the view point of the flow dynamics and leaflet dynamics. The autologous pericardium was attached to deficient portion of the porcine valve which was dissected completely and partially. The pericardium was treated by buffered glutaraldehyde solution in the preshaped mould to preserve the shape of the leaflet. The function of the valves were evaluated in the mock circulatory system and three sets of experiment were performed. The instantaneous motion of the leaflet was pictured by the 35mm camera and the pressure drop through the valve and cardiac output were measured. The supplementary valve which was replaced completely performed better thatn the valve replaced partially. In vitro experiments showed that the supplementary valve which was replaced completely performed better than the valve replaced partially. In vitro experiments showed that the supplementary valve could undertake the prosthetic heart valve in clinic.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.285-290
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• 1998

There are various reports on the fracture of mechanical heart valves implanted in human or animal, and they are pointed out that problems are induced by an erosion of disk surface, due to a cavitation effect. We have been investigating this mechanism using accelerated fatigue tester, and it was found that erosion was enhanced by a compliance effect in the test circuit. In this study, effects of compliance value and location on erosion were discussed, while disk closing velocity was measured by a high speed video camera. It was clarified that faster closing velocity was resulting in a enhancement of erosion on the disk surface.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.297-303
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• 1998

The sinus distal to the prosthetic heart valve influences the valve closure behavior and velocity field near the valve, therefore affects the hydrodynamic performance of the prosthetic heart valve. In order to study the effects of valve distal geometry on the hydrodynamic performance of the prosthetic valves, mechanical bileaflet valve(SJMV), monoleaflet polymer valve(MLPV) and trileaflet polymer valve(FTPV) are inserted in the test sections which have the straight and the sinus shape distal to the valve. Leakage volumes and systolic mean pressure drops are measured in the pulsatile mock circulation flow loop. Leakage volumes are slightly less and systolic mean pressure drops are higher in the sinus test section comparing to those in the straight test section, but the differences are statistically insignificant. Flow waveforms are analyzed in order to predict the valve closure behavior. The distal sinus does not affect the closure of the MLPV, but early valve closure of SJMV is observed in the sinus test section. This effect is more significant in FTPV, and the reverse flow peak of FTPV is reduced in the sinus test section. Therefore the sinus distal to the valve can reduce the reverse flow jet caused by sudden valve closure.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.85-92
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• 1996

A monoleaflet polymer artificial heart valve which showed the remarkable improvement in pressure drop compared with other types of artificial valve was designed to minimize the deflection in vertical direction and the displacement of the valve tip in horizontal direction obtained by using finite element method as the location of the supporting members of the valve frame changed stress distribution change was also studied on each model generated by changing the distance between the frame and supporting members. It was found that by using the valve tip horizontal displacement the minimum valve thickness could be obtained in order to prevent the gap between the valve tip and the frame wall.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.291-296
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• 1998

A new mechanical heart valve prosthesis has been designed appling systematic design methodology. The function of the heart valve was defined, and search for design variation has been carried out according to the functional structure, Optimal model among the various variations was determined in view of the design specificationn. Proto type valve was fabricated and test has been carried out using a mock circulation system. It has been observed that the pressure profile, cardiac output and behavior characteristics are generally satisfactory.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.505-512
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• 2000

기계식 인공심장판막을 통한 혈액의 유동과 이 유동에 관련된 판첨의 거동특성을 수치해석기법을 이용하여 연구하였다. 혈액은 맥동류, 층류, 비압축성 유동으로 가정하였으며 유체-고체의 상호작용을 고려하기 위하여 혈액의 유동방정식과 고체의 운동방정식이 동시에 계산되었다. 심실과 대동맥에서의 압력파형을 경계조건으로 사용하였다. 연구의 결과로서 혈액유동과 판첨의 거동이 예측되었으며, 판막을 통한 3개의 제트가 발견되었으며 vortex가 판첨의 끝단에서 발생하여 하부로 흘러가는 것이 관찰되었다. 판첨의 닫힘 거동은 열림 거동에 비하여 2배정도 빠르게 진행되었으며 sinus에서 2개의 큰 vortex가 관찰되었다. 유체-고체 상호작용을 고려하는 본 연구방법은 향후 판막의 연구와 개발에 매우 유용할 것으로 판단된다.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.421-430
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• 2004

Clinically, it is almost impossible for a physician to distinguish subtle changes of frequency spectrum by using a stethoscope alone especially in the early stage of thrombus formation. Considering that reliability of mechanical valve is paramount because the failure might end up with patient death, early detection of valve thrombus using noninvasive technique is important. Thus the study was designed to provide a tool for early noninvasive detection of valve thrombus by observing shift of frequency spectrum of acoustic signals with computer aid diagnosis system. A thrombus model was constructed on commercialized mechanical valves using polyurethane or silicon. Polyurethane coating was made on the valve surface, and silicon coating on the sewing ring of the valve. To simulate pannus formation, which is fibrous tissue overgrowth obstructing the valve orifice, the degree of silicone coating on the sewing ring varied from 20％, 40％, 60％ of orifice obstruction. In experiment system, acoustic signals from the valve were measured using microphone and amplifier. The microphone was attached to a coupler to remove environmental noise. Acoustic signals were sampled by an AID converter, frequency spectrum was obtained by the algorithm of spectral analysis. To quantitatively distinguish the frequency peak of the normal valve from that of the thrombosed valves, analysis using a neural network was employed. A return map was applied to evaluate continuous monitoring of valve motion cycle. The in-vivo data also obtained from animals with mechanical valves in circulatory devices as well as patients with mechanical valve replacement for 1 year or longer before. Each spectrum wave showed a primary and secondary peak. The secondary peak showed changes according to the thrombus model. In the mock as well as the animal study, both spectral analysis and 3-layer neural network could differentiate the normal valves from thrombosed valves. In the human study, one of 10 patients showed shift of frequency spectrum, however the presence of valve thrombus was yet to be determined. Conclusively, acoustic signal measurement can be of suggestive as a noninvasive diagnostic tool in early detection of mechanical valve thrombosis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.429-438
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• 1997

Mechanical valve is one of the most widely used implantable artificial organs of which the reliability is so important that its failure means the death of patient. Therefore early noninvasive detection is essentially required, though mechanical valve failure with thrombosis is the most common. The objective of this paper is to detect the thrombosis formation by spectral analysis and neural network. Using microphone and amplifier, we measured the sound from the mechanical valve which is attached to the pneumatic ventricular assist device. The sound was sampled by A/D converter(DaqBook 100) and the periodogram is the main algorithm for obtaining spectrum. We made the thrombosis models using pellethane and silicon and they are thrombosis model on the valvular disk, around the sewing ring and fibrous tissue growth across the orifice of valve. The performance of the measurment system was tested firstly using 1 KHz sinusoidal wave. The measurement system detected well 1KHz spectrum as expected. The spectrum of normal and 5 kinds of thrombotic valve were obtained and primary and secondary peak appeared in each spectrum waveform. We find that the secondary peak changes according to the thrombosis model. So to distinguish the secondary peak of normal and thrombotic valve quantatively, 3 layer back propagation neural network, which contains 7, 000 input node, 20 hidden layer and 1 output was employed The trained neural network can distinguish normal and valve with more than 90% probability. As a conclusion, the noninvasive monitoring of implanted mechanical valve is possible by analysing the acoustical spectrum using neural network algorithm and this method will be applied to the performance evaluation of other implantable artificial organs.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.297-306
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• 2004

Current artificial heart valves have several disadvantages, such as thromboembolism, limited durability, infection, and inability to grow. The solution to these problems would be to develop a tissue-engineered heart valves containing autologous cells. The aim of this study was to optimize the protocol to obtain a porcine acellular matrix and seed goat autologous endothelial cells on it, and to evaluate the biological responses of xenograft and xeno-autograft heart valves in goats. Material and Method: Fresh porcine pulmonic valves were treated with one method among 3 representative decellularization protocols (Triton-X, freeze-thawing, and NaCl-SDS). Goat venous endothelial cells were isolated and seeded onto the acellularized xenograft leaflets. Microscopic examinations were done to select the most effective method of decellularizing xenogeneic cells and seeding autologous endothelial cells. Two pulmonic valve leaflets of. 6 goats were replaced by acellularized porcine leaflets with or without seeding autologous endothelial cells while on cardiopulmonary bypass. Goats were sacrificed electively at 6 hours, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6. months after operation. Morphologic examinations were done to see the biological responses of replaced valve leaflets. Result: The microscopic examinations showed that porcine cells were almost completely removed in the leaflets treated with NaCl-SDS. The seeded endothelial cells were more evenly preserved in NaCl-SDS treatment. All 6 goats survived the operation without complications. The xeno- autografts and xenografts showed the appearance, the remodeling process, and the cellular functions of myofibroblasts, 1 day, 1 month, and 3 months after operation, respectively. They were compatible with the native pulmonary leaflet (control group) except for the increased cellularity at 6 months. The xenografts revealed the new endothelial cell lining at that time. Conclusion: Treatment with NaCl-SDS was most effective in obtaining decellularized xenografts and facilitate seeding autologous endothelial cells. The xenografts and xeno-autografts were repopulated with myofibroblasts and endothelial cells in situ serially. Both of grafts served as a matrix for a tissue engineered heart valve and developed into autologous tissue for 6 months.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.439-448
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• 2001

This paper considers the acoustical characteristics of the closing click sounds of the mechanical valves employed in an implantable biventricular assist device (BYAD) and their re1evance to the Physical states of the valved. Bj rk Shiley Convexo Concave tilting disk valve was chosen for the study and acoustic measurement was made for the BYAD operated in a mock circulatory system as well as implanted in an animal (sheep). In the BYAD operated in the mock circulatory system. three different states of the valve were examined, ie. normal. mechanically damaged. pseudo-thrombus attached. Microphone measurement for the BVAD implanted in the animal was carried out for five days at a regular time interval from one day after implantation. Characteristic spectrum of the sound from the valve was estimated using Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) in which the optimal order was determined according to Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) . It was observed that the mechanical damage of the valve resulted in changes of the structure of the acoustic spectrum. In contrast. the thrombus formed on the valve did not change much the basic structure of the spectrum but brought about altering the spectral Peak frequencies and energies. Maximum spectral Peak (MSP) with the greatest energy was seen at 2 kHz for the normal valve and it was shifted to 3 kHz for the calve attaching the Pseudo-thrombus. Unlike the normal valve, strong spectral Peak appeared around 7 kHz in the sound from the valve mechanically damaged. In the case of the BYAD implanted in the animal. as the thrombus grew, acoustic energy was reduced relatively more in the low frequency components (〈 2 kHz) and the frequencies of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd MSP were increased little. The thrombus formation would result in reduction in both the variability of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd MSP and the value of the BIC optimal order.