Aortic Valve/Root Interactions in Porcine Hearts: Implications for Bioprosthetic Valve Sizing

The implantation of aortic allografts as well as stentless, freehand porcine xenograft valves requires proper sizing of the graft for the recipient aortic root. To visualize the aortic valve in motion and measure the cyclic expansion of the aortic root, we developed an isolated porcine heart model and a computerized three-dimensional reconstruction technique. Dynamic and static expansions of the aortic root were obtained from beating and …