US Patent Issued to St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division on Sept. 9 for "Cuff stitching reinforcement" (Minnesota Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,409,030, issued on Sept. 9, was assigned to St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc. (St. Paul, Minn.).

"Cuff stitching reinforcement" was invented by Peter N. Braido (Wyoming, Minn.), Andrea L. McCarthy (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) and Kent J. Smith (Shoreview, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A prosthetic heart valve includes a collapsible and expandable stent having a proximal end, a distal end, an annulus section adjacent the proximal end and an aortic section adjacent the distal end, the stent including a plurality of struts. A cuff may be coupled to the stent so that a flat, bottom edge of the cuff lies adjacent the proximal end ...