PLATELET ADHESION TO NATIVE AND TREATED BIOPROSTHETIC HEART VALVES PART II: DYNAMIC TESTS IN A SPECIALLY DESIGNED PULSATILE FLOW CELL.

Considerable attention has been directed toward the development of biocompatible materials for heart valves and other blood-contacting component replacement. The authors have specially designed a pulsatile flow cell, which combines the roles of a pulse duplicator for fatigue-testing, a circulatory simulator for assessing the hydrodynamic performance, and a device for studying platelet adhesion to heart valve leaflets in their naturally operational mode. This paper reports on platelet adhesion studies in this more physiologically representative pulsatile-flow system, as part of an investigation of thrombus formation on bioprosthetic heart valves.