Transient pressure signals in mechanical heart valve cavitation.

The purpose of this investigation was to establish a correlation between mechanical heart valve (MHV) cavitation and transient pressure (TP) signals at MHV closure. This correlation may suggest a possible method to detect in vivo MHV cavitation. In a pulsatile mock flow loop, a study was performed to measure TP and observe cavitation bubble inception at MHV closure under simulated physiologic ventricular and aortic pressures at heart rates of 70, 90, 120, and 140 beats/min with corresponding cardiac outputs of 5.0, 6.0, 7.5, and 8.5 L/min, respectively. The experimental study included two bileaflet MHV prostheses: 1) St. Jude Medical 31 mm and 2) Carbomedics 31 mm. High fidelity piezo-electric pressure transducers were used to measure TP immediately before and after the valve leaflet/housing impact. A stroboscopic lighting imaging technique was developed to capture cavitation bubbles on the MHV inflow surfaces at selected time delays ranging from 25 microseconds to 1 ms after the leaflet/housing impact. The TP traces measured 10 mm away from the valve leaflet tip showed a large pressure reduction peak at the leaflet/housing impact, and subsequent high frequency pressure oscillations (HPOs) while the cavitation bubbles were observed. The occurrence of cavitation bubbles and HPO bursts were found to be random on a beat by beat basis. However, the amplitude of the TP reduction, the intensity of the cavitation bubble (size and number), and the intensity of HPO were found to increase with the test heart rate. A correlation between the MHV cavitation bubbles and the HPO burst was positively established. Power spectrum analysis of the TP signals further showed that the frequency of the HPO (cavitation bubble collapse pressures) ranged from 100 to 450 kHz.