US Patent Issued to St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division on April 29 for "Leaflet suturing to commissure points for prosthetic heart valve" (Minnesota Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,285,332, issued on April 29, was assigned to St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc. (St. Paul, Minn.).

"Leaflet suturing to commissure points for prosthetic heart valve" was invented by Yousef F. Alkhatib (Edina, Minn.) and Peter N. Braido (Wyoming, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A collapsible prosthetic heart valve includes a collapsible and expandable stent and a collapsible and expandable valve assembly. The stent has a proximal end and a distal end. A plurality of commissure points is disposed on the stent. The valve assembly is disposed within the stent and includes a plurality of leaflets. Each leaflet has a free edge. An e...