An in vitro study of changing profile heights in mitral bioprostheses and their influence on flow.

In vitro assessment of different profiles for prosthetic mitral valves can result in better understanding of the physics of transmitral flow for each design. It has been postulated that decreasing the profile height of the mitral bioprosthetic valve has potential clinical benefit. In the present study, we compared the atrial and ventricular flow characteristics in different conditions using Carpentier-Edwards Perimount mitral valves with various profile heights.