Patent ID: 8109876

Claim:
A non-invasive method to identify the structural integrity of each of two legs of an outlet strut welded attached to an orifice ring of a Bjork Shiley Convexo-Concave (BSCC) heart valve implanted in a human, comprising: a. having the outlet strut having two legs which are each welded attached to the orifice ring of the Bjork Shiley Convexo-Concave heart valve, impacting the BSCC heart valve with a megahertz frequency in a range of 1 MHz to 10 MHz in order to deliver sound energy or acoustic pressure to the BSCC heart valve; b. insonifying the BSCC heart valve with a modulated and interrogating frequency in the range of 1 KHz to 12 KHz in order to induce the outlet strut component of the BSCC heart valve to vibrate at its natural or resonant frequency to thereby emit a kilohertz resonant frequency of the outlet strut of the BCSS heart valve in the same kilohertz frequency range; and c. detecting the emitted kilohertz resonant frequency of the BCSS heart valve outlet strut with a frequency detection member to determine the resonant frequency at which the outlet strut of the BSCC heart valve is vibrating and analyzing all the resonant frequencies in order to determine if the legs of the outlet strut at the locations adjacent to or at the attachment sites where the legs are welded attached to the orifice ring are intact or if at least one leg of the outlet strut at a location adjacent to or at the welding site where the at least one leg is welded to the orifice ring has sustained a kissing fracture or has sustained a separated fracture.