Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Calcification Of Bovine Pericardial Aortic Heart Valves, Asha Parekh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Heart valve disease is prevalent among Canadian population and worldwide; and for failing valves, the ultimate solution is valve replacement surgery. Bovine pericardial tissue is commonly used as a biomaterial to fabricate bioprosthetic heart valves (BHVs), however calcification of the soft tissue is an ongoing concern for its long-term performance. Calcification ultimately results in device failure due to regurgitation, stenosis, or both, which is caused by stiffening, tearing and rupturing of the tissue valve leaflets. This project investigates parameters related to bovine pericardial heart valve calcification. Three in vitro methods of calcium quantification in soft tissue were assessed using bovine …

Characterization Of Low Density Intracranial Lesions Using Dual-Energy Computed Tomography, Jessica L. Nute

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Calcific and hemorrhagic foci of susceptibility are frequently encountered on routine brain MR studies. Both etiologies cause variations in local magnetic field strength, leading to dark regions on the MR images that cannot be classified. Single-energy CT (SECT) can be used to identify lesions with attenuation over 100 HU as calcific, however lesions with lower attenuation cannot be reliably identified. While calcific lesions are unlikely to cause harm, hemorrhagic lesions carry a risk of subsequent intracranial bleeding; as such, identification of hemorrhage is vital in preventing the inappropriate use of anticoagulant medications in patients with hemorrhagic lesions.

Given there currently …