Geometrical orifice area compared to effective orifice area of valvular mitral bioprosthesis : in vitro study

The relation between the geometrical orifice area (GOA) and the effective orifice area (EOA) of mitral bioprosthesis has been previously studied in both in vitro and clinical studies. Although GOA gives a measurement of the actual geometric orifice, EOA could be considered as the minimum area formed by the fluid downstream of the prosthesis and is calculated by the continuity equation . However, those studies mainly concern prosthesis in aortic position, and those in mitral mostly test only one particular mitral flow pattern. The aim of this study is to insight the understudied impact of mitral flow profile and the type of bioprosthesis on both GOA and EOA. Five bioprostheses of identical label diameter were tested on a pulsed duplicator in different hydrodynamic mitral flow conditions. Mitral flow is defined by the E- and A-wave amplitude and ratio, the diastolic time and the stroke volume (SV)