Abstract:The durability of prosthetic heart valve leaflets made of biological materials is limited. A tear in the biomaterial accelerates their early failure, but microtearing of the collagen fibers may be responsible for their medium-term failure. We studied the force necessary to propagate tearing in two biomaterials: ostrich and calf pericardium. One hundred twenty samples of each tissue were tested in an Elmendorf pendulum capable of measuring the force required to tear a tissue in which a predefined slit had been … Show more
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