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We had an emergency this morning. We are off to quite a rushy start.
I don't mind.
We had a young patient who has acute aortic insufficiency...
and we had to take him on pump to replace the aortic valve.
So that was our emergency this morning.
If we replace a valve, we have two options. We can either use a mechanical valve...
or a bioprosthesis, which consists of animal tissue.
Because they are not living, these heart valves do not grow with the patient.
They can also not adapt or repair themselves.
So in these younger patients such a heart valve needs to be replaced.
Two or three times, or even more times during a lifetime.
If you're a young patient, you have to take medication till the end of your life.
You're always at risk, if you go skiing or play soccer, to have a bleeding complication...
or even a neurological complication due to bleeding.
So this is harmful for the patients, and of course we try to improve.
In the ImaValve project we are developing a heart valve that consists of living materials...
and that can adapt in the human body. It can repair itself, and we also expect that it can...
grow with the patients.
Our heart has four heart valves, and a heart valve controls the blood flow through our heart...
and through our body. And when a heart valve has a defect...
for instance, it's becoming too stiff to open and close, or it's leaky...
then you get very tired. The heart has to work very hard, and your body gets exhausted.
In that case, the valve needs to be replaced.
Scientists have been looking to create living heart valves for about two decades.
It doesn't exist right now, and we are in the process of creating it.
The most fascinating thing is that we create a polymer-based valve...
that is so smart to attract the right cells in the right moment within the body...
to transform into a living heart valve.
We actually make use of the processes in the body that we call wound repair.
We start with a material, a polymer. It's a supramolecular polymer...
that has the right properties to actually communicate with the processes in the body.
And this polymer is produced into a fibre structure.
It's a technique called electrospinning.
The material is formed in a very thin micrometer fibre mesh.
This material is then formed into the shape of a heart valve.
And we'll suture this to a stent. A stent is a way to deliver the valve at the right site.
It can be used to fold the valve into a very small shape. That's a very nice solution.
So the system is based on a stented heart valve which can be introduced via the groin...
or via a very small incision in the body. And that is how we are able to replace heart valves...
in a very fast and safe manner in many patients. And under live imaging such as fluoroscopy...
or echo we are then able, in a very controlled manner...
to deliver those valves to our patients.
You can discuss a lot about this, when will we enter the stage of patient.
I think this will happen soon but it's risky to say when.
So that's not... -I think 2020. We're close.