Application 148

TAVR Valve Durability Testing

Application Summary

When one of your heart valves fail, you want the replacement to be able to endure the rigors of the human body. TAVR and TVMR valves need to have the durability and reliability to remain in a patient indefinitely. Durability, in this case, is survival at extremely high blood pressures, since the last thing the patient or the doctor wants is the valve to fail during a cardiac event. To accomplish this, a load cell is placed between a linear actuator and a syringe piston that is pumped down forcing fluid into a small pressure vessel allowing the system to hold at a constant pressure.

Products in Use

LCM Series In-Line or LSB Series S-Beam paired with a USB220 Data Logging System.

How it Works

LCM series or LSB series load cells are threaded in-line with a linear actuator and syringe piston measuring the force the linear actuator is applying to the syringe piston for test validation.
As the linear actuator pushes down on the load cell/piston assembly the flow of fluid pushes open the TAVR valve.
A check valve keeps the fluid moving only through the TAVR valve and a pressure vessel is used as a reservoir allowing the system to reach the burst testing pressures.
The linear actuator then retracts, pulling the piston up, forcing the TAVR closed and refilling through the now open check valve.
The USB220 displays and logs the data to a PC via FUTEK's SENSIT™ software. This data can be used to validate the accuracy and precision of the pressure generated by the syringe piston.