Stent induced loading of the aortic valve complex

Abstract

In order to evaluate the performance of stents used in transcatheter aortic valve implantation (T-AVI), finite element simulations are set up to re-construct patient specific contact forces between implant and its surrounding tissue. The reference geometry of the stent is obtained using micro-CT scanning data. A procedure is defined to create a numerically efficient and robust model of the stent made of beam elements. The model is validated with experiments applying representative loading cases. Post-op CT image data provide patient specific displacement maps used to define kinematic boundary conditions for the finite element simulation. An approach to deal with the issue of spurious strains induced by measurement uncertainties from CT images is proposed. Maps of radial forces acting on the aortic tissue are obtained.