In vivo blood compatibility of titanium oxide film coated artificial heart valves prepared by plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition

Summary form only given, as follows. Summary form only given. Successful application of cardiovascular devices such as artificial heart valves (AHV) has saved millions of patients´ lives. However complications caused by thrombogenicity or bleeding still exist due to insufficient blood compatibility of the clinically applied AHV materials. Surface modification has shown good potential to improve the anticoagulation of blood-contacting biomedical devices and materials. Our previous studies of Ti-O thin films synthesized using ion beam enhanced deposition (IBED) have shown that Ti-O films possess superior blood compatibility to the conventional clinically-applied AHV materials. In the work described here we focused our attention on the in vivo blood compatibility behavior of Ti-O thin film coated artificial heart valves prepared by plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIIID). Artificial heart valves coated by Ti-O thin film were implanted into dogs´ hearts for different periods from one month to three months under conditions of no anticoagulant. The results of the implantations showed very low thrombus formation on the surfaces of the Ti-O thin film coated AHVs, although serious coagulation had occurred on the surfaces of unmodified AHV.