Handmade Trileaflet Valve Design and Validation for Pulmonary Valved Conduit Reconstruction Using Taguchi Method and Cascade Correlation Machine Learning Model

Pulmonary valve diseases in children and adults include different degrees of stenosis, regurgitation, or congenital defects. Valve repair or replacement surgery is used to treat valvular dysfunction and to improve regurgitations flow for pulmonary valve pathologies. Handmade trileaflet valve designs with different ranges of diameters have been used for pulmonary valved conduit reconstruction among children or adult patients with available conditions. In this paper, we propose a multiple regression model as a cascade-correlation-network-based estimator to determine optimal trileaflet parameters, including width, length, and upper/lower curved structures, for trileaflet valve reconstruction. The diameter of the main pulmonary artery is determined via computed tomography pulmonary angiography, and a trileaflet valve template is rapidly sketched. The actual valve is constructed using an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene material. Using an experimental pulmonary circulation loop system, design parameters and valve efficacy can be validated by the Taguchi method through calculation of signal-to-noise ratios. Experimental results indicate that in contrast to commercial valve stents, the handmade trileaflet valve exhibits good performance and is a valuable option in treatment of severe pulmonary regurgitation.