PSG institute to develop low-cost, plastic heart valve

COIMBATORE: Researchers at the PSG Institute here are developing a low-cost, flexible plastic heart valves for replacement that promises to be more efficient than the tissue-based heart valves currently in use.

The PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in India (PSG IMSR), in collaboration with the Colorado State University (CSU) and the Ohio State University (OSU), in the USA, are working on developing the low-cost replacement heart valves, which would be an effective alternative to both the bioprosthetic valves and mechanical heart valves presently used for replacements.

The new valve is expected to reduce patients' need for medication to prevent blood clots.

This group is supported by a two-year joint grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, and department of biotechnology (DBT) in India.

Associate professor and principal investigator Lakshmi Prasad Dasi, an expert in heart-valve engineering and cardiovascular biomechanics said, “Patients who receive mechanical heart valves must remain on lifelong medication to prevent blood clotting which suffers from its own set of side effects and complications. On the other hand, bioprosthestic valves, usually, made from animal tissue, are prone to hardening over time and don't last more than 10 to 15 years.”

Such valves cannot be implanted in these patients because most of them are young with rheumatic valve disease, and would need repeated open-heart surgery to replace the worn out bioprosthestic valves.

The artificial heart valves to be developed in this project will be made from flexible plastic materials containing hyaluronan, a molecule found throughout the body and in the neutral heart valve tissues.

The valve design will be optimised for superior performance over a much longer period of time without the need for anticoagulation therapy.