Heart valve prosthesis with integrated electronic circuit for measuring intravalvular electrical impedance, and system for monitoring functionality of the prosthesis
A heart valve prosthesis of any type, with internal microelectronic circuit for monitoring the movement of the valve leaflets or of the movable opening and closing elements of said heart valve prosthesis, and external electronic system for telemetric monitoring of such a sensorized heart valve prosthesis, characterized in that said heart valve prosthesis comprises two or more electrodes set in the annular base body of the prosthesis itself, and comprises an internal microelectronic circuit, which is connected to electric power supply means, is equipped with means for generating, between said electrodes, an electrical field, the field lines of which are oriented so as to interfere with the opening and closing movement of the movable elements of said heart valve prosthesis or of the natural leaflets of the heart valve on which said prosthesis will be mounted, and is equipped with or connected to means for detecting the variations of said electrical field produced by the cyclic movement of opening or closing of said leaflets or of said movable elements, which will be expressed as variations of intravalvular electrical impedance and characterized in that it comprises, implanted, a transceiver unit with corresponding antenna for telemetric transmission of the data correlated to said variations of intravalvular electrical impedance, to an external unit that processes the collected data and uses them at least for purposes of diagnosis and prevention.
