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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Breandan Yeats
BioE Ph.D. Proposal
November 16, 2021
3:30 pm on BlueJeans: https://bluejeans.com/375590054/6553?src=calendarLink
Advisor:
Lakshmi Dasi, Ph.D. (School of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)
Committee:
Ajit Yoganathan, Ph.D. (School of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)
John Oshinski, Ph.D. (School of Biomedical Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University)
Rudy Gleason, Ph.D. (School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology)
Vinod H. Thourani, MD. (Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Piedmont Heart Institute )
Biomechanics of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement for Bicuspid Aortic Valves
Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common congenital heart defect and is associated with numerous pathologies including calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) which requires replacement of the native valve. Replacements are delivered through either surgical or transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) approaches. The number of TAVR in BAV cases is expected to increase substantially due to the recent removal of the FDA precautionary label for TAVR use in BAV patients and deemed safe in low-surgical risk patients. Two of the main concerns when treating BAV patients with TAVR are paravalvular regurgitation (PVR), a known associate of increased patient mortality, and long-term durability. Highly calcified BAV patients have shown increased incidence of PVR following TAVR. Additionally, stent asymmetry and undersizing are common in BAV patients both being indicators of reduced device durability however, very limited data exists on TAVR long-term durability in BAV patients. Determining the risk of these complications based on BAV anatomy is very difficult as current morphology classification systems do not encompass all aspects of the anatomy and there is limited data correlating anatomy to these outcomes beyond calcium scoring. The impact of device placement and balloon filling volume across varying BAV anatomies is also not fully understood. This research aims to (1) quantify the BAV anatomy and create a new quantitative parameterized aortic valve classification system, (2) assess BAV anatomical relationship to PVR, stent asymmetry, bioprosthetic leaflet stress, and bioprosthetic leaflet opening after TAVR, (3) evaluate the impact of TAVR placement and balloon filling volume on PVR, stent asymmetry, bioprosthetic leaflet stress, and bioprosthetic leaflet opening after TAVR. This study will be extremely valuable in understanding the aortic valve anatomy pertaining to different morphologies and the biomechanics of TAVR for BAV patients leading to more informed patient selection for TAVR and TAVR planning.
