ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,329,636, issued on June 17, was assigned to Medtronic Vascular Inc. (Santa Rosa, Calif.).

"Elliptical heart valve prostheses, delivery systems, and methods of use" was invented by Matthew Baldwin (Santa Rosa, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A heart valve prosthesis includes a frame and a prosthetic disposed within a lumen of the frame. The frame includes a plurality of struts and crowns and has a radially collapsed state and a radially expanded state. A stiffness of the plurality of struts is varied by varying the width of at least one strut of the plurality of struts such that when the frame is in the radially expanded state, the ...