Patent ID: 11883293
Assignee: CARDIOVALVE LTD.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A

Claim 10:
11. The method according to claim 7, wherein:
assigning the respective index to each of the leaflet-flexibility values comprises arranging the indices in an ordered series in which the indices are ordered according to an order of magnitude of the respective leaflet-flexibility values; and
designating at least some of the leaflets of the aggregate into designated leaflet groups comprises, starting at the beginning of the ordered series, iteratively:
(a) selecting a preliminary index group from among remaining indices, a remaining index being defined as an index that is positioned later, in the ordered series, than any index that has previously been selected as an index of a preliminary index group, wherein selecting of the preliminary index group is such that:
a lowest index of the preliminary index group is the index of the preliminary index group that has a lowest leaflet-flexibility value of the indices of the preliminary index group, and a highest index of the preliminary index group is the index of the preliminary index group that has a highest leaflet-flexibility value of the indices of the preliminary index group,
the preliminary index group includes a number of successive indices equal to the group size, and
the lowest index of the preliminary index group is the lowest remaining index;

(b) determining if the leaflet-flexibility value of each index of the preliminary index group is within the intra-group tolerance with respect to the leaflet-flexibility value of each other index of the preliminary index group;
(c) counting a number of remaining indices;
(d) responsively to the step of the determining, and to the step of the counting, selectively selecting an index group from a cluster of indices, the cluster of indices comprising the preliminary index group and a predetermined number of successive indices, wherein the lowest index of the preliminary index group is the lowest index of the cluster, and selectively selecting the index group from the cluster of indices comprises:
if the flexibility value of each index of the preliminary index group is determined to be within the intra-group tolerance with respect to the leaflet-flexibility value of each other index of the preliminary index group, iteratively:
(1) selecting, from the indices of the cluster, an index group that (i) has not previously been selected from the indices of the cluster, and (ii) has a group-differential that is no greater than the group-differential of any other index group that has not previously been selected from the cluster, a group-differential being a value that represents a difference between the leaflet-flexibility values of the indices of the index group,
(2) determining whether designating the selected index group would reduce a total number of within-tolerance index groups that may be attained from the indices, compared to the maximum number;
(3) in response to the step of determining whether designating the selected index group would reduce the total number of within-tolerance index groups attainable from the indices, selectively designating the selected index group, wherein selectively designating the selected index group comprises:
 if designating the selected index group is determined to not reduce the total number of within-tolerance index groups attainable from the indices, designating the selected index group, and
 if designating the selected index group is determined to reduce the total number of within-tolerance index groups attainable from the indices, not designating the selected index group,

until the selected index group of a given iteration of step (d) is designated, and
if the flexibility value of each index of the preliminary index group is determined to not be within the intra-group tolerance with respect to the leaflet-flexibility value of each other index of the preliminary index group, repeating steps a-d;

until the counted number of remaining indices is less than the group size value.