Velocity of closure of Björk-Shiley Convexo-Concave mitral valves: effect of mitral annulus orientation and rate of left ventricular pressure rise.

The purpose of this study was to determine analytically the hemodynamic factors that affect the closing velocity of the disc of Björk-Shiley convexo-concave (BSCC) prosthetic mitral valves. The motion of the BSCC disk was modelled by Newton's second law written in the form of a second order differential equation which expressed the instantaneous angle of the disc with respect to the valve ring as a function of the instantaneous pressure drop across the mitral valve, delta P(t), and the angle of the pressure gradient vector acting upon the disc during closure. The disc closes in response to the negative pressure drop created by the crossover of left atrial and left ventricular (LV) pressures. The rate of closure depends on the rate of development of the pressure drop across the valve, d delta P/dt, which is largely dependent upon the rate of change of left ventricular pressure during isovolumic contraction, LV dP/dt. The closure rate is also strongly dependent on the initial angle of the pressure drop vector with respect to the disc. The disc was predicted to reach its highest velocity at the moment of impact, based on the Runge-Kutta solution. Modelling suggests that a high LV dP/dt during valve closure or distorted LV geometry, causing the angle between the fully open disc and the pressure drop vector to shift, will cause the valve to have a high velocity at the moment of impact and may produce high impact loads.