Anisotropic elasticity and strength of glutaraldehyde fixed bovine pericardium for use in pericardial bioprosthetic valves

✍ Scribed by Zioupos, P. ;Barbenel, J. C. ;Fisher, J.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 960 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9304
• DOI: 10.1002/jbm.820280107

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Uniaxial tensile tests were performed on glutaraldehyde fixed bovine pericardial strips prepared from chemically modified pericardial samples. These samples originated from an area which demonstrated anisotropic mechanical properties in the native material and which is suitable for the construction of leaflets for pericardial bioprostheses. After glutaraldehyde fixation the tissue had retained its anisotropicity in stiffness and strength in two orthogonal directions. In the range of the functional stresses for a heart valve leaflet (> 1 MPa) the unconstrained fixation regime had modified the initial anisotropic elastic behavior into a more isotropic one. The implications of these findings are that leaflets manufactured from bovine pericardium can be made to resemble, to a degree, the well known anisotropy found in two orthogonal direction in natural human heart valve leaflets, or porcine bioprosthetic heart valve leaflets. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.