Effect of Stent Designs on the Paravalvular Regurgitation of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Paravalvular aortic regurgitation (AR) significantly influences the outcome of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). This study deals with the effect of stent design on AR after TAVI was evaluated by numerical simulations. Three different stents were implanted into the representative calcified human aortic root models. The excessively dense or a sparse outflow end would result in larger stent deformation indexes, higher stress of calcified plaques and aortic root, and larger gap between stent and aortic wall, and lead to serious paravalvular regurgitation. This study provides the guidance for design of transcatheter aortic valve.