ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,303,386, issued on May 20, was assigned to St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc. (St. Paul, Minn.).
"Stent assembly for use in prosthetic heart valves" was invented by Mina S. Fahim (Shoreview, Minn.) and Peter N. Braido (Wyoming, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A prosthetic heart valve having a cuff attached to a stent provides a seal for preventing paravalvular leakage. The cuff may be constructed from known sealing materials to fill in and around paravalvular leakage gaps, while continuously collapsing down into a low profile volume within the stent. The cuff is coupled circumferentially about the stent by members which may b...