Developing and testing new heart valves for people with aortic stenosis

A novel transcatheter valve for younger patients with aortic stenosis

Dr Geoffrey Moggridge and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge are developing new heart valves that could help more people with aortic stenosis, or AS. In AS the valve separating the heart and the aorta, the main artery supplying blood to the body, narrows. People experience symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath or fainting. For those with severe AS, valve replacement is the only treatment, and this means open heart surgery for most patients. Cardiologists can implant heart valves through an artery in the leg using a catheter. Compared to surgery, fewer people die from catheter-based replacement, and they recover quicker. But these valves have a limited lifespan of 10 to 15 years, and their use is limited to higher-risk older people, because current valves are not removable once implanted and younger people outlive them. Dr Moggridge has developed a removable valve that will enable doctors to repeatedly implant, retrieve and replace valves in any patient through arteries in their legs. In this project, he will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of this new valve in sheep – animals with a heart anatomy that is similar to people. If this research is successful, it could lead to studies testing this new valve in people, and ultimately a new way to help younger patients with AS.