Edwards公司的组织工程心脏瓣膜与新型热固定置换技术

一种整合了组织工程心脏瓣膜的新治疗方法，显著降低了瓣膜小叶钙化的发生，这种钙化是组织瓣膜退化的主要原因。

这种治疗方法叫做ThermaFix（热固定），是由生化学家Sophie Carpentier博士与她的丈夫Alain Carpentier教授共同研制开发的。Alain Carpentier教授是法国巴黎的欧洲乔治斯蓬皮杜医院心脏血管外科主任。ThermaFix治疗方法现在广泛用于所有的Perimount Magna心脏瓣膜置换手术中，这种瓣膜是Edwards生命科学公司(Irvine, CA, USA)的产品。

Perimount Magna瓣膜是一种由牛心包膜制造的主动脉置换组织工程心脏瓣膜，专门设计用于是血流保持最佳状态。该瓣膜可以容易地放置在患者原来地瓣膜开口处，使得外科医生能够植入比其它传统组织工程瓣膜更大地瓣膜。外科医生通常更加喜欢使用能够保持患者血流状态处于最佳状态地瓣膜，而根据2004年9月份《循环》期刊的报道，Perimount瓣膜阀门能够提供更大的瓣膜开放面积从而使得血流容易通过。

美国俄勒冈州普罗维登斯心脏与血管研究院医学主任Albert Starr医生指出：“尽管数十年来已经证实心包瓣膜十分可靠，但是从它诞生开始，如何减轻组织工程瓣膜小叶钙化一直是研究和开发的核心问题。通过联合使用改进血流动力学特性的Perimount Magna瓣膜以及使用ThermaFix热固定方法，Edwards公司给患者提供了科技目前所能达到的最好工艺，从而提高了患者的信心。”
 
Heart Valve Incorporates Tissue Treatment
 
A new treatment process incorporated into tissue heart valves significantly reduces leaflet calcification, one of the primary causes of tissue valve deterioration.

The process, called ThermaFix, was co-developed by biochemist Sophie Carpentier, Ph.D., and her husband, Prof. Alain Carpentier, chairman of the department of cardiovascular surgery at the Hopital Europeen Georges Pompidou in Paris (France). The ThermaFix process is now available on all the Perimount Magna replacement tissue heart valves of Edwards Life Sciences (Irvine, CA, USA).

The Perimount Magna valve, an aortic replacement tissue heart valve constructed of bovine pericardium, is designed specifically to optimize blood flow. It facilitates placement above the patient’s native valve opening, which may allow surgeons to implant a valve that is larger than other conventional tissue valves. Surgeons generally prefer valves that can provide optimal blood flow for their patients, and the Perimount valve line has been shown to provide greater valve opening areas to facilitate blood flow, according to an article in the September 2004 issue of Circulation.

“Although pericardial valves have demonstrated decades of reliable performance, mitigating the calcification of a tissue valve’s leaflets has been a focus of research and development since their introduction,” noted Albert Starr, M.D., medical director of the Providence Heart and Vascular Institute (Oregon). “By coupling the Perimount Magna valve’s improved hemodynamic performance with the ThermaFix process, Edwards is providing patients with the confidence that they are getting the best technology there is to offer.”