Abstract: A prosthetic heart valve for replacing a native valve includes a stent having a plurality of struts, an inflow end, an outflow end, a collapsed condition and an expanded condition. A valve assembly is disposed within the stent. A first cuff is annularly disposed adjacent the stent, and a second cuff is annularly disposed about the stent radially outward of the first cuff and radially outward of the stent. The second cuff is at least partly radiopaque and may assist in determining the relative position between the second cuff and a patient's anatomy using fluoroscopy during an implantation procedure.

Abstract: A prosthetic heart valve includes a stent body and prosthetic leaflets. The stent body extends from an inflow end to an outflow end and includes an annulus section defining a first row of cells extending in a circumferential direction, the stent body being expandable from a delivery condition having a first diameter to a deployed condition having a second diameter larger than the first diameter. The prosthetic leaflets are mounted to the stent body allow flow in an antegrade direction but substantially block flow in a retrograde direction. The first row of cells is circumferentially continuous in the delivery condition and in the deployed condition, and the stent body is further expandable from the deployed condition to an open condition in which the first row of cells is circumferentially discontinuous.

Abstract: A catheter comprises an expandable spline structure defining a distal tip portion of the catheter. The spline structure comprises a plurality of individual splines, and each spline is configured to support a plurality of energy transfer elements and/or temperature sensors. An expandable balloon configured to be associated with the spline structure is unattached to the spline structure along its length.

Abstract: Arrhythmic foci and other driver sites can be mapped using a multi-dimensional catheter. For instance, using a clique of three or more electrodes on the multi-dimensional catheter, an electroanatomical mapping system can identify a maximum bipolar voltage and an average unipolar voltage. The ratio of the average unipolar voltage to the maximum bipolar voltage can be interpreted as an indication of whether a cardiac location is an arrhythmic focus. Alternatively, an evaluation region can be defined about location in the patient's heart. The evaluation includes a plurality of rods, each associated with a respective E-field loop having a respective maximum and minimum amplitude bipole axes, with the rods being defined by the maximum amplitude bipole axes. For a sufficient number of rods within the evaluation region, a focus score for the evaluation region can be computed to reflect rod orientation consistency within the evaluation region.

Abstract: A prosthetic heart valve includes a radially collapsible and expandable stent, a cuff and leaflets sutured thereto. The heart valve extends axially between an inflow end and an outflow end and the stent includes a layout of struts and nodes having a hybrid combination of vertical struts and oblique struts in the form of diamond-shaped and half diamond-shaped cells. The layout of the structure is configured to preserve a low cell density of material used in the stent to reduce the stent profile while in a collapsed state and to improve the deployment accuracy of the stent into the native valve annulus.

Abstract: A prosthetic heart valve may include an expandable stent having a plurality of struts forming cells connected to one another in a plurality of annular rows around the stent, a cuff attached to an annulus section of the stent by cuff sutures that have a plurality of stitches extending through material of the cuff and looping around the struts, and a plurality of leaflets each having a belly attached to the cuff within an interior region of the stent. The leaflets may together have a coapted position occluding the interior region of the stent and an open position in which the interior region is not occluded. The belly of each leaflet may be attached to the cuff by leaflet sutures extending in a path that crosses some of the struts in overlap zones. Those struts may be devoid of the stitches within the overlap zones.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a medical device straightener. The medical device straightener can comprise an elongate shaft extending along a shaft longitudinal axis, the elongate shaft including a shaft proximal end and a shaft distal end, wherein a shaft inner wall of the elongate shaft defines a shaft lumen extending therethrough. The medical device straightener can comprise a bleedback valve that includes an outer circumferential surface. The bleedback valve can be disposed at a distal end of the elongate shaft, within the shaft lumen, wherein a portion of the outer circumferential surface is in communication with the shaft inner wall. The bleedback valve can define a radially expandable lumen longitudinally extending through a center of the bleedback valve.

Abstract: A prosthetic heart valve may include an expandable stent, a cuff attached to an annulus section of the stent, and a plurality of leaflets disposed within an interior region of the stent and attached to at least one of the cuff or the stent. The stent may have a plurality of cells connected to one another in a plurality of annular rows around the stent. The leaflets together may have a coapted position occluding the interior region of the stent and an open position in which the interior region is not occluded. Each leaflet may include a primary leaflet material, as well as features that reinforce specific regions of the leaflet.

Abstract: In various embodiments, workpieces are processed, e.g., via welding or cutting, while the shape and/or one or more other parameters of the laser processing beam are altered. The shape and/or one or more other parameters of the laser processing beam may be varied based on one or more characteristics of the workpiece.

Abstract: A motor vehicle includes a precipitation sensor detecting weather-related precipitation. An actuator moves a movable overhead covering between a covered position and an uncovered position. An electronic processor is communicatively coupled to the precipitation sensor and to the actuator. The electronic processor responds to the precipitation sensor detecting weather-related precipitation by automatically causing the actuator to move the movable overhead covering from the uncovered position to the covered position.

Abstract: Described herein is a medical device for treating a target site. The medical device includes a proximal end including a disc and a distal end including a lobe. The disc and lobe are connected by a connecting member. The disc includes a proximal surface, a distal surface, and a central surface extending between and connecting the proximal surface and distal surface, wherein the central surface separates the proximal surface from the distal surface by a predetermined depth distance.

Abstract: A steerable introducer deflectable via a handle assembly is described. The handle assembly includes slide members disposed within a slide chassis and coupled to deflection wires to deflect the introducer, and a slide block divider for constraining slide members. The slide block divider and the slide chassis combine to form a slide compartment in which each of the first slide member and the second slide member is slidably disposed. The slide block divider can prevent the deflection wires from crossing each other within the handle assembly, and constrain each of the slide members during translation within the slide compartment to inhibit motion transverse to a longitudinal direction of the slide compartment. The slide block divider can provide an improved handling of the steerable introducer.

Abstract: A method of tracking a position of a catheter within a patient includes securing a navigational reference at a reference location within the patient, defining the reference location as the origin of a coordinate system, determining a location of an electrode moving within the patient relative to that coordinate system, monitoring for a dislodgement of the navigational reference from the initial reference location, for example by measuring the navigational reference relative to a far field reference outside the patient's body, and generating a signal indicating that the navigational reference has dislodged from the reference location. Upon dislodgement, a user may be provided with guidance to help reposition and secure the navigational reference to the initial reference location, or the navigational reference may be automatically repositioned and secured to the initial reference location. Alternatively, a reference adjustment may be calculated to compensate for the changed reference point/origin.

Abstract: A head up display arrangement for a motor vehicle includes a head up display module having a picture generation unit emitting a light field. A polarizing device is rotatable between at least a first rotational position and a second rotational position. The polarizing device receives the light field from the picture generation unit and emits the light field regardless of whether the polarizing device is in the first rotational position or the second rotational position. More of the light is emitted by the polarizer in a P-polarization state in the second rotational position than in the first rotational position. A windshield reflects the light field from the polarizing device such that the reflected light field is visible to a human driver of the motor vehicle as a virtual image.

Abstract: The instant disclosure relates to electrophysiology catheter for tissue ablation. In particular, the instant disclosure relates to a system controller for facilitating an ablation therapy at a cryogenic ablation balloon. In an embodiment, an ablation an ablation catheter system comprising a catheter shaft including proximal and distal ends, a catheter handle coupled to a proximal end of the catheter shaft, a cryogenic ablation ballon coupled to the distal end of the catheter shaft, the ablation ballon configured and arranged to deliver a cryogenic ablation therapy to target tissue, an ablation system controller coupled to the catheter handle.

Abstract: Elongate medical devices with a deflectable shaft section include a lumen liner configured to enhance planarity control of the deflectable shaft section. An elongate medical device includes a deflectable shaft section, a lumen within the deflectable shaft section, and a lumen liner that surrounds and defines the lumen. The lumen liner has an in-plane bending stiffness and an out-of-plane bending stiffness that is greater than the in-plane bending stiffness to provide planarity control of the deflectable shaft section during the cross-sectional bending of the deflectable shaft section.

Abstract: Electrical activation of tissue can be mapped from using electrophysiological data from a plurality of electrodes carried by a high density grid catheter. Each clique of three or more electrodes will define a pair of orthogonal bipoles as well as several unipoles. An electroanatomical mapping system can analyze the electrophysiological data such that, for each clique, an integral of an omnipolar electrogram the best morphologically matches a representative (e.g., average) unipolar electrogram for the clique is identified. The orientation of the best-fit omnipole is then defined as the activation direction for the clique. The conduction velocity magnitude can also be computed as a ratio of an amplitude of the unipolar electrogram for the clique to an amplitude of the integral of the omnipolar electrogram for the clique along the activation direction. The resulting activation map can also be output graphically.

Abstract: A prosthetic tricuspid heart valve system includes a collapsible anchor frame and a collapsible prosthetic heart valve. The anchor includes a support structure having a waisted central portion, and atrial and ventricular flared portions sized to clamp a native valve annulus. Atrial and ventricular sheets are coupled to the atrial and ventricular flared portions, and each include a central aperture. A generally cylindrical fabric valve-receiving member has an inflow end coupled to the atrial sheet and an outflow end coupled to the ventricular sheet to provide a conduit through the valve-receiving member between the atrial and ventricular sheet. The prosthetic heart valve may include a stent and a plurality of prosthetic leaflets, the prosthetic heart valve configured to be expanded into and received within the valve-receiving member of the anchor frame.

Abstract: According to one aspect of the disclosure, a delivery device may include a handle, a catheter sheath extending distally from the handle, and a hemostasis valve positioned within the handle. The hemostasis valve may be located proximal to the catheter sheath and distal to a proximal end of the handle. The delivery device may also include a hemostasis bypass assembly coupled to the handle. The hemostasis bypass assembly may include a bypass tube coupled to an actuator. The actuator may be configured to be transitioned between a first condition in which a distal end of the bypass tube is positioned proximal to the hemostasis valve and the hemostasis valve is closed, and a second condition in which the distal end of the bypass tube traverses the hemostasis valve and the hemostasis valve is opened.

Abstract: A prosthetic heart valve for replacing a native valve includes a collapsible and expandable stent having a proximal end and a distal end, the stent being formed of a plurality of struts forming cells. A valve assembly is disposed within the stent, the valve assembly including a plurality of leaflets and a cuff. At least one runner is coupled to a cell and configured to transition from a first configuration to a second configuration when the stent moves from the collapsed condition to the expanded condition.