The Mitroflow pericardial heart valve. In vitro assessment over a range of sizes in aortic and mitral positions.

The performance of a three leaflet pericardial heart valve over a range of sizes in both the aortic and mitral position has been assessed in vitro. A pulse duplicator was used to test valves under conditions simulating normal and abnormal cardiac rhythms. The forward and regurgitant flow energy loss across each valve has been added to give an overall measure of valve hydrodynamic performance. This energy loss ranges from approximately 3% of the ventricle energy for large size mitral valves at low heart rates, to 22% for the smallest aortic valves operating at 120 beats per minute.