St. Jude Medical Heart Valve Demonstration 31M Unit
date: label: date made
content: ca 1980
name: label: maker
content: St. Jude Medical
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: The St. Jude artificial heart valve is a floating bileaflet valve with pivots near the central axis. The valve is made of pyrolyte carbon, a very durable and biocompatible material, and the cuff is made of Dacron. The orifice ring is made of machined graphite coated with pyrolytic carbon. The two leaflets are made of tungsten impregnated with graphite.
label: Description (Brief)
content: After successful tests in calves, the first human implantation occurred in October 1977. Over a twelve month period, twenty-four patients received implants of the St. Jude valve in the aortic and the mitral positions.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Manny Villafaña, the son of Puerto Rican immigrants founded St. Jude Medical Inc. in 1976. Villafaña had been approached by Xinon C. Posis, an engineer, and cardiologist Demetre Nicoloff of the University of Minnesota to test their design for a leaflet artificial heart valve. Villafaña and his engineers helped redesign the hinges.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Minnesota, Saint Paul
topic: label: Subject
content: Medicine
label: Subject
content: Cardiology
label: Subject
content: Prosthesis
label: Subject
content: Artificial Organs
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Artificial Heart Valves
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Dr. Patrick K. C. Chun
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0731.03
label: accession number
content: 1981.0731
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0731.03
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cardiology
label: Object Name
content: artificial heart valve
label: Other Terms
content: Surgery
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: carbon (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7/8 in x 2 1/8 in x 2 3/8 in; 2.2225 cm x 5.3975 cm x 6.0325 cm