ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,661,227, issued on June 23.
"Annuloplasty device" was invented by Olli Keranen (Bjarred, Sweden), Hans-Reinhard Zerkowski (Kreuzlingen, Switzerland) and Johannes Jung (Pforzheim, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of repairing a defective heart valve involves positioning first and second support rings of an annuloplasty device in a first configuration on opposite sides of native heart valve leaflets and activating a contracted state of the annuloplasty device so that a first pitch distance between the first and second support rings in the first configuration is reduced to a second pitch distance that is shorter than the firs...