After more than 20 years, the M6 is still considered the international gold standard in heart valve testers. It’s hard to beat the fact that the M6 has at one time or other been used to test nearly every heart valve available for implant in the world today. Pioneer Professor Milton Swanson (our founder), considered by many to be the world’s first true cardiovascular flow dynamicist, introduced this instrument using a combination of a bellows volume drive with tuned fluid oscillation. This allows the heart valves to be opened and closed fully while attaining targeted closing pressures without the need to completely stop a column of liquid. Another important characteristic is that the systemic pressure of the M6 can be raised to reduce the occurrence of cavitation during high speed testing, a particular problem with mechanical heart valves. In addition to evaluating the durability of heart valves, the M6 can be used to evaluate a variety of films, candidate leaflet materials, septal repair products and LVAD bladders.
