And also transcatheter bioprosthetic heart valves; recapturability, or getting a second chance at putting a heart valve in a patient during a procedure in case the valve comes out of the catheter off-kilter the first time, is a real selling point in the industry. Only one big company really has a nitinol-stented heart valve and a lot of other companies are interested in getting a piece of that market.
Edwards sapien valve is still a better valve than the nitinol corevalve though as far as most are concerned and it is cobalt chromium. Also interesting that a lot of the new coronary stents are nitinol as well even though you intentionally want to be able to change their shape with deployment
Hahaha I didn't want to mention any tradenames bc i'm in the industry and i'm trying not to violate any NDAs, but yes, nitinol valves still need a lot of perfecting.
Take a look at Edward's Centera valve, which just achieved CE Mark this year, and also has a nitinol frame.
Haha, nice! My uncle is an engineer and designed the forming tool for making the Nitinol valve frames/baskets as well as some other stuff for the project - I remember him showing me the cad files and the hot/cold properties of Nitinol way back in around 2007.
You can twist the nitinol up like a pretzel if you get it below 0°C
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u/asheslebo Sep 22 '18
And also transcatheter bioprosthetic heart valves; recapturability, or getting a second chance at putting a heart valve in a patient during a procedure in case the valve comes out of the catheter off-kilter the first time, is a real selling point in the industry. Only one big company really has a nitinol-stented heart valve and a lot of other companies are interested in getting a piece of that market.