Figure 7
From: In vivo assessment of mitral valve leaflet remodelling following myocardial infarction
Systolic stretches in both the circumferential and radial directions, referenced to the current time point’s diastolic configuration. Lines and error bars at each time point denote the mean and standard error across \(n = 8\) specimens. Asterisk symbols (*) denote statistically significant differences from the corresponding pre-MI value with 95% confidence (\(p < 0.05\) yielded by a paired \(t\)-test). While results in Figs. 4a and 6 demonstrate that the systolic configuration of the MV actually remains largely unchanged post-MI, the results above highlight that the radial deformation experienced by the leaflets over the current cardiac cycle is significantly decreased throughout several regions of the leaflet, due to the effects of tethering that stretch out the leaflets in diastole over time.
