Abstract
Hydrodynamic characteristics of 18 commercially-available valves including 6 newly-developed valves were studied on our mock circulatory system and the effective orifice area (EOA) of each valve was calculated by modified Gorlin's equation. The results were as follows: 1) EOA of Bicerval tilting disc valve was larger than that of Björk-Shiley (B-S) and was similar to those of CC-B-S, Omniscience, and SJM. 2) EOAs of new porcine valves (Liotta, Biocor) were similar to those of MO-Hancock(H250), and new Carpentier valves, but they were less than that of B-S by 15%. 3) As for the bovine pericardial valves, EOAs of Ionescu Shiley (I-S) and IMC were similar to those of B-S and H250, respectively. Ross-Bentley and new I-S exhibited the largest EOA among testing valves.
