Abstract
The ATS valve was developed by Villafana, who also developed St. Jude Medical valve (SJM). First clinical trial was performed on May 1992. Since then, its clinical applications have been done more than 10, 000 cases in the world, centering on Europe. Several studies have been reported as for its anti-thorombogenicity, hemolysis, less noise. Since September 1993 to June 1994, 16 patients underwent valve replacement, using ATS valve in our institute. We evaluated this valve function by continuous wave Doppler echo-cardiography one year after operation. The result showed the same compared with SJM. In aortic position, the result showed lower peak gradient, particularly in 23mm size (ATS valve; 8.9±1.6mmHg, SJM valve; 22.3±6.6mmHg), comparing with the SJM valve. In conclusion, this new valve showed superior valve function with low pressure gradient in echo-cardiographic viewpoint, indicating equivalent to that of SJM.
