Computer assessment of patients for transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Engineering assessment of patients for transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Diseases of the heart valves are common and, when serious, require treatment with open-heart surgery. Recently, a non-surgical technique for aortic valve replacement has been developed. Despite its success, only patients considered at high risk for surgery can currently benefit from this technique. The researchers will develop computer simulations that replicate the non-surgical procedure in a model of the heart of every patient requiring a new aortic valve. If the non-surgical procedure could be represented correctly and reliably by a computer, this computer modelling could be performed before the real procedure in each patient. It could be used to predict the results of non-surgical implantation of a new valve in patients who currently cannot benefit from it.