American Heart Association Funds Kheradvar’s Heart Valve Research

Sept. 28, 2016 - Arash Kheradvar, biomedical engineering associate professor, has been awarded a grant-in-aid from the American Heart Association (AHA) to investigate risks associated with transcatheter heart valve stent-crimping.

Transcatheter implantation of heart valves is an emerging technology with great promise for revolutionizing the treatment of valve-related heart disease, particularly in patients not healthy enough for cardiac surgery. The procedure involves compressing the valve’s leaflets within its stent – a process known as stent-crimping – until it is small enough to fit within the catheter that will deliver it into the heart. Previous research has shown that this crimping process can cause mechanical stress that could result in disruption of the collagen fibers in the valve’s leaflets. This stress may make the valve prone to calcification and early biomechanical failure; the damaged leaflets also could facilitate the formation of blood clots in the patients.

The two-year, $150,000 grant will allow the Kheradvar lab to test the stent-crimped valves against uncrimped control valves (similar to those used in surgical procedures) to assess calcification and functional differences in their biomechanical properties. “The results from this project can help define safer criteria for patients undergoing [transcatheter] procedures and will provide the heart valve industry with a roadmap toward designing and developing better and more durable transcatheter valve technologies,” Kheradvar said. “AHA’s grant-in-aid supports independent investigators with innovative and advanced projects related to cardiovascular disease and stroke.”

-- Anna Lynn Spitzer