Patent ID: 6375679
Filing Date: 2002-04-23
Classification: A61F

Abstract:
The combination of(a) a prosthetic valve having a plurality of flexible leaflets for opening and closing the valve and each having an edge region attached to a frame of the valve and further having a free edge, and (b) a sinus having a plurality of lobes symmetrically disposed around the periphery of the sinus, a downstream conduit located downstream of said lobes in the direction of blood flow through the sinus and an upstream conduit located upstream of said lobes in the direction of blood flow through the sinus, the sinus being such that the valve may be located therein with said attached edges of any one of the leaflets extending in coincidence with an upstream edge region of a respective lobe, wherein in axial section taken centrally through a lobe (i) the angle of intersection (&ggr;) of each leaflet with its respective lobe is from 165 to 195Â°, (ii) the radius of curvature of the lobe increases continuously to the downstream end thereof, (iii) at said downstream end the angle (&ohgr;) between notional projection of the inner surface of the lobe into the downstream conduit and the surface of said conduit is 23-37Â°, and (iv) the ratio (Rswp/ttl) of Vsweep to Vtotal, where (aa) with the valve located in position in the sinus and the leaflets closed Vtotal is the free volume of the sinus between the downstream end of the upstream conduit and the upstream end of the downstream conduit, and (bb) Vsweep is the leaflet sweeping volume, is at least 0.14.