Annular Cinching

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Summary The invention generally relates to The invention generally relates to restricting the dimension of a beating heart valve. More particularly, systems and methods are disclosed that enable a minimally invasive procedure for incrementally restricting a heart valve, such as the septal-lateral diameter of an atrio-ventricular valve. One exemplary embodiment of the invention involves a method of improving the morphology of a deficient heart valve. The method first involves attaching an anchoring component to a first target site on a tissue component of a heart. Then, a locking component is attached to a second target site on the tissue component of the heart. Subsequently, a tension member is coupled to the anchoring component and the tension member is coupled to the locking component. Then the distance between the first target site and the second target site is adjusted by activating the tension member. The tension member can then be locked into place with the locking component. Another exemplary embodiment of the invention provides a cinching apparatus that has an anchoring component with a proximal end and a distal end. The proximal end of the anchoring component has an attaching member enabled to communicate with a tissue component of a heart. The locking component also has an attaching member enabled to communicate with the tissue component of a heart. The cinching apparatus also provides a tension member. The anchoring component is enabled to be positioned on a first target site of a tissue component of the heart, the locking component is enabled to be positioned on a second target site of the tissue component of the heart, and the tension member can be coupled to both the anchoring component and the locking component. The tension member can be activated to adjust the distance between the first target site and the second target site and fixed by the locking component.