Imaging of aortic valve and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) special issue

The aortic valve is a robust and highly sophisticated structure. Aortic valve leaflets support 80 mmHg at 15 kPa (equivalent to a 5 kg bag of sugar), are 10 times thinner than the aortic wall, and are the most deforming tissue in the body at 10 –20 ms over 1 second at 2 billion heartbeats in 65 years! Over 500 years ago, the structure fascinated the enquiring mind of the genius artist and engineer, Leonardo Da Vinci. He studied the mechanism of unidirectional flow through the valve by modelling the flow vortices (using grass seeds!) betw een the valve cusps and the wall of the sinus of Valsalva that resulted in the closure of the valve during diastole1 (Fig 1).

Source: Clinical Radiology - October 5, 2020 Category: Radiology Authors: S. Mirsadraee Tags: Editorial Source Type: research