Back to 2014 Annual Meeting Posters
A Novel Heart Valve Of Medical-grade Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Fibers; In Vitro Bacteriological experiments
Amir Basir, Paul Gründeman, Frans Moll, Joost van Herwaarden, Gerard Pasterkamp, Jolanda Kluin, Jos van Strijp, Reindert Nijland.
University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands.
OBJECTIVE: Current cardio-vascular prosthesis materials carry drawbacks; some are not suitable for endovascular treatment by their inability to fold or have too large profile, other need strong anticoagulant drugs or have a moderate durability. These prostheses are also associated with bacterial infections. Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is a medical entity with potentially fatal outcome. In early PVE bacterium Staphylococcus aureus predominates with 36% prevalence. Medical-grade Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers are thin, flexible, fatigue- and abrasion resistant and have high strength. Therefore, prostheses made of these fibers are attractive for construction of heart valves applied in transcatheter approaches. The aim of this study is to test the bacterial adherence on medical-grade UHMWPE patches.
METHODS: Two different UHMWPE patches (one membrane patch and one fabric), and 4 patches currently used as cardio-vascular patches; two different fabrics of polyester and two different membrane patches of ePTFE were used. All patches were contaminated with S. aureus bacteria in the presence of 20% human serum, and incubated for 10, 30 and 90 minutes. After incubation, the patches were rinsed to remove non-adherent bacteria. The remaining bacteria were released from patches, and counted by measuring the colony formed units (CFU) on plate.
RESULTS: On fabric patches, there was less CFU for UHMWPE patches compared to the test patches at all 3 time points. On membrane patches, less CFU was observed on one PTFE patch after 10 minutes. At 30 and 90 minutes there was less CFU for UHMWPE patches compared to test patches.
CONCLUSIONS: UHMWPE patches are a potentially suitable material in blood for prosthetic valve and other low profile cardio-vascular applications by their non-inferiority regarding bacterial adhesion. Yet, more extensive in vivo studies are needed to confirm if they are a suitable candidate for use in prosthetic heart valves and other vascular applications. 
Back to 2014 Annual Meeting Posters