An Approach for Designing Patient-Specific Prosthetic Aortic Valves Based on CTA Images Using Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) Method

Background: Currently, the efficacy of prosthetic valves is highly dependent on the geometry of the aortic root. With the development of computational fluid dynamics, patient-specific modeling and simulation of prosthetic heart valves increasingly become the forefront of current research. Methods: In this study, we propose an approach for designing patient-specific prosthetic aortic valves using fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis. Firstly, the aortic root model was reconstructed from the computed tomography angiography (CTA) images. We then implemented a parametric valve design. The leaflets were determined by the attachment curve, the free edge, and the belly curve. We selected six key points, including three points located at the ends of the free edge, and three points located at the bottom of the attachment curve. This allowed for designing various leaflet geometries. Furthermore, each valve model was simulated using the FSI method. We evaluated deformation, effective orifice area (EOA), and stress to study its performance. Conclusion: The simulation results showed that patient-specific valves demonstrated a large EOA and proper stress, indicating satisfactory performance. Our study investigated an approach for designing patient-specific prosthetic aortic valves and evaluated hemodynamic parameters. This provides promising insights into the design of prosthetic aortic valves and potentially serves as a valuable tool to assist patient-specific aortic valve replacement.