St. Jude Medical, Inc.

St. Jude Medical, Cardiology Division, Inc.

Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc.

Abbott Laboratories Corporation

St. Juse Medical, LLC

St. Jude Medical, Cardiology Division, Inc. D/b/a

Yousef F Alkhatib

Peter Nicholas Braido

Tracee E Eidenschink

Aaron J Chalekian

Thomas M Benson

Gary Erzberger

Matt Heidner

Daniel J Gregorich

Michael J Girard

Adam Jennings

Ott Khouengboua

Derek C Sutermeister

John B Blix

Jacob John Daly

Kent J Smith

Jay Reimer

Dominick Godin

Richard Charles Gunderson

Karl Alan Jagger

Julia Ann Schraut

Ralph Joseph Thomas

Sounthara Khouengboua

Keith T High

Angela Kornkven Volk

James Leo Kurk

Theodore Paul Dale

Mina Safwat Fahim

Andrea L McCarthy

Kristopher Henry Vietmeier

Kristen T Morin

Derek Wise

Julia Ann Neuman

Steven Frederick Anderl

Jan Weber

Huisun Wang

Thomas J Holman

Daniel James Horn

Timothy J Mickley

Valerie J Glazier

Richard L Goodin

Paul Edward Ashworth

Brett Allen Hillukka

Richard J Olson

Xue Mei Li

Ying Xiong

XueMei Li

Richard Dunn

Peter J Ness

Richard A Noddin

The Thomas Trinh Tran

Dan Quillin

Richard Kaleta

Zach Tegels

Steve Hoff

Adam Jennigs

Peter Nicholas Braldo

Ryan Finn

Julia A Neuman

Peter N Braido

A catheter assembly for retaining a prosthetic valve as the prosthetic valve is guided to a point of delivery within a patient is provided with radioscopic markers. The markers are distributed within the catheter assembly such that an observer may discern a rotational orientation of the assembly from a radioscopic image of the assembly within the patient. Delivery of the prosthetic valve may include aligning the markers with the commissures of the prosthetic valve and radioscopic observation of the location or movement of the markers to rotationally align the prosthetic valve with a native valve within the patient, such as by aligning the commissures of the prosthetic valve with the commissures of the native valve.

Delivery system radiopaque (RO) markers for TAVR commissure alignment

At least a portion of fabrics for use in medical devices is formed from polymeric materials. The fabrics may be uncoated, partially coated or fully coated with one or more layers of a polymer. The fabrics may be used for the leaflets and/or cuffs of prosthetic heart valves and as a component of other medical devices.

Fabric material for medical devices

A system for delivering a collapsible and re-expandable prosthetic heart valve into a patient includes a valve support structure around which the valve is disposed in a collapsed condition. A sheath structure surrounds the collapsed valve, but can be moved relative to the valve to uncover it for expansion at the desired implant site in the patient. The sheath structure may be variously mounted and moved to deploy the valve in various ways. For example, the sheath structure may include multiple parts, each of which can be moved separately to separately deploy various parts of the valve. The apparatus may have other aspects, such as the ability to reverse deployment of the valve, the ability to pass other instrumentation through the valve delivery apparatus, the ability to be smoothly withdrawn from the patient after deployment of the valve, etc.

Delivery and retrieval systems for collapsible/expandable prosthetic heart valves

A prosthetic heart valve includes a support structure and a valve assembly. The valve assembly includes a cuff and a plurality of leaflets, each of the prosthetic leaflets being composed of a synthetic material. The prosthetic leaflets have a closed condition in which the prosthetic leaflets coapt to restrict blood from flowing in a retrograde direction through the support structure and an open condition in which the prosthetic leaflets allow blood to flow in an antegrade direction through the structure. The synthetic material may be heat set to bias the leaflets to the open or closed condition, or to bias one portion of the leaflet to the open condition and another portion of the leaflet to the closed condition.

Heat treating to improve synthetic leaflet motion and coaptation

A collapsible prosthetic heart valve includes a collapsible and expandable stent and a collapsible and expandable valve assembly. The stent has a proximal end and a distal end. A plurality of commissure points is disposed on the stent. The valve assembly is disposed within the stent and includes a plurality of leaflets. Each leaflet has a free edge. An end portion of the free edge of each leaflet is folded and sutured to a corresponding one of the plurality of the commissure points.

Leaflet suturing to commissure points for prosthetic heart valve

A prosthetic heart valve may include an expandable stent, a cuff attached to an annulus section of the stent, and a plurality of leaflets disposed within an interior region of the stent and attached to at least one of the cuff or the stent. The stent may have a plurality of cells connected to one another in a plurality of annular rows around the stent. The leaflets together may have a coapted position occluding the interior region of the stent and an open position in which the interior region is not occluded. Each leaflet may include a primary leaflet material, as well as features that reinforce specific regions of the leaflet.

Collapsible leaflets for prosthetic heart valves

A prosthetic heart valve for replacing a native valve includes a stent, a valve assembly, and a radiopaque element. The stent has a plurality of commissure attachment features. The valve assembly includes a plurality of leaflets and first and second cuffs. The first cuff has a proximal edge relatively close to the inflow end of the stent. The second cuff may be annularly disposed about the stent radially outward of the first cuff and radially outward of the stent. The proximal edge of the first cuff is coupled to the proximal edge of the second cuff substantially continuously along a circumference of the inflow end of the stent so that a pocket is formed between the first cuff and the second cuff. The radiopaque element is disposed within the pocket and aligned in a longitudinal direction of the stent with at least one of the plurality of commissure attachment features.

Radiopaque elements on prosthetic heart valves

A prosthetic heart valve (e.g., a prosthetic aortic valve) is designed to be somewhat circumferentially collapsible and then re-expandable. The collapsed condition may be used for less invasive delivery of the valve into a patient. When the valve reaches the implant site in the patient, it re-expands to normal operating size, and also to engage surrounding tissue of the patient. The valve includes a stent portion and a ring portion that is substantially concentric with the stent portion but downstream from the stent portion in the direction of blood flow through the implanted valve. When the valve is implanted, the stent portion engages the patient's tissue at or near the native valve annulus, while the ring portion engages tissue downstream from the native valve site (e.g., the aorta).

Prosthetic heart valves

A prosthetic aortic valve includes an annular, annulus inflow portion that is designed to reside in or near the patient's native aortic valve annulus, and an annular, aortic outflow portion that is designed to reside in the patient's aorta downstream from at least a portion of the valsalva sinus. The annulus inflow portion and the aortic outflow portion are connected to one another by a plurality of connecting struts that are confined to regions near the commissures of the patient's native aortic valve. The connecting struts are designed to bulge out into the valsalva sinus to help anchor the prosthetic valve in place. The valve is circumferentially collapsible to a relatively small diameter for less-invasive delivery into the patient. The valve circumferentially expands to a larger operational diameter when deployed at the implant site.

Prosthetic aortic heart valves

Apparatus for attaching a prosthetic tether between a leaflet of a patient's heart valve and another portion of the patient's heart to help prevent prolapse of the leaflet and/or to otherwise improve leaflet function. The apparatus can be used with relatively low invasiveness of the patient's body. The apparatus releasably clamps the leaflet during attachment of the tether to the leaflet. The apparatus may include an integrated display for indicating how extensively the leaflet is being clamped, as well as structure for stabilizing the leaflet for better clamping. The apparatus may enter the heart through an aperture in the wall of the heart, and may include structure for helping to reduce blood leakage from that aperture. The apparatus may be able to enter the heart by following a guide wire. The apparatus may include various means for attaching the tether to the leaflet.

Heart valve chordae replacement methods and apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Edina, MN, United States of America

Yousef F Alkhatib