title: Leakage of mechanical heart valve prostheses of Björk-Shiley type: in vitro investigations using Newtonian fluids.
abstract: The leakage of mechanical heart valve prostheses with tilting disc occluders was investigated. A U tube apparatus and a quasi-stationary method were used for measuring the backflow pressure characteristics. The method has several advantages over pulsatile or oscillatory techniques described in the literature. We have attempted to interpret the results of our measurements in terms of laminar and turbulent losses of energy. This leads to dimensionless loss numbers for valve leakage which are independent of arbitrary experimental conditions.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Medizinische Physik und Biophysik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Wendt
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pohl
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lerche
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006439:Hemodynamics; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D011475:Prosthesis Failure; D013314:Stress, Mechanical