• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.22-28
• /
• 2013

It is important to begin left ventricular assist device (LVAD) treatment at appropriate time for heart failure patients who expect cardiac recovery after the therapy. In order to predict the optimal timing of LVAD implantation, we predicted pumping efficacy of LVAD according to the severity of heart failure theoretically. We used LVAD-implanted cardiovascular system model which consist of 8 Windkessel compartments for the simulation study. The time-varying compliance theory was used to simulate ventricular pumping function in the model. The ventricular systolic dysfunction was implemented by increasing the end-systolic ventricular compliance. Using the mathematical model, we predicted cardiac responses such as left ventricular peak pressure, cardiac output, ejection fraction, and stroke work according to the severity of ventricular systolic dysfunction under the treatments of continuous and pulsatile LVAD. Left ventricular peak pressure, which indicates the ventricular loading condition, decreased maximally at the 1st level heart-failure under pulsatile LVAD therapy and 2nd level heart-failure under continuous LVAD therapy. We conclude that optimal timing for pulsatile LVAD treatment is 1st level heart-failure and for continuous LVAD treatment is 2nd level heart-failure when considering LVAD treatment as "bridge to recovery".

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.57 no.3
• /
• pp.312-314
• /
• 2024

A 3-year-old boy with Glenn physiology exhibited refractory heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. To improve the patient's oxygen saturation, he underwent ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation with concomitant Fontan completion. The extracardiac conduit Fontan operation was performed with a 4-mm fenestration. For VAD implantation, Berlin Heart cannulas were positioned at the left ventricular apex and the neo-aorta. Following weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass, a temporary continuous-flow VAD, equipped with an oxygenator, was utilized for support. After a stabilization period of 1 week, the continuous-flow VAD was replaced with a durable pulsatile-flow device. Following 3 months of support, the patient underwent transplantation without complications. The completion of the Fontan procedure at the time of VAD implantation, along with the use of a temporary continuous-flow device with an oxygenator, may aid in stabilizing postoperative hemodynamics. This approach could contribute to a safe transition to a durable pulsatile VAD in patients with Glenn physiology.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.349-358
• /
• 2001

A novel electro-mechanical implantable ventricular assist system is developed as a bridge to transplantation or recovery for patients with end-stage heart failure. The developed system is composed of an implanted blood pump, an external monitoring system which stores data, and a wearable system including a portable external driver and a portable power supply system. The blood pump is designed to be implanted into the left upper abdominal space and provides blood flow from the left ventricular apex to the aorta. The pulsatile blood flow is generated by a double cylindrical cam. There was mo excessive heat emission from the blood pump into the temperature-controlled chamber in the heat test and no stagnated flow within the blood sac by the observation in the flow visualization test. Animal experiments were performed using sheep and calves. The maximum assist flow rate reached 7.85L/min in the animal experiment. The evaluation results showed that the developed system was feasible for the implantable ventricular assist system. The long-term in vitro durability test and mid-term in vivo experiments are in progress and mow the modified next model is under development.

• Proceedings of the KTCVS Conference
• /
• 1993.06a
• /
• pp.70-70
• /
• 1993

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.78-82
• /
• 2006

The ventricular assist device(VAD) helps to reduce the overload against the patient's native heart(NH). The pulsatile VAD pumps out the ventricular blood to the aorta with pulsatile flow. If the VAD pulsates simultaneously with the NH, the ventricle of the NH could confronts abnormally elevated aortic pressure, and this could deteriorate the ventricle rather than assist to recover it. Thus counterpulsation algorithms to avoid copulsation have been adopted by many VADs, but these methods utilize electrocardiography or arterial pressure signals, which may have difficulties to acquire consistently for a long period. In this study, the copulsation estimation algorithm for the counterpulsation is developed using the VAD outlet pressure signal. The VAD outlet pressure signal is good to maintain for a long time and the sensor part could be integrated to the VAD as a built-in module. From the VAD outlet pressure signal and its pump rate information calculated with Fast Fourier Transform, pulse peaks by the VAD and the NH were extracted and the next copulsation time at which the VAD and the NH would pulsate simultaneously was estimated. This estimation algorithm was implemented by using PC MATLAB software and tested for various pump rate conditions with mock circulation system. For each condition, the copulsation time was estimated successfully. Consequently, the results showed the possibility to use the outlet cannula pressure signal in the copulsation estimation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.35 no.11
• /
• pp.1191-1198
• /
• 2011

The use of a ventricular assist device (VAD) can raise the one-year survival rate without cardiac transplantation from 25% to 52%. However, malfunction of the VAD system causes 6% of VAD patients' deaths, which could possibly be avoided through the development of new VADs in which VAD malfunctions do not affect the patient's heart movement or hemodynamic state. A conventional VAD has an impeller or vane for propelling blood that can allow blood to regurgitate when the propelling force is weaker than the aortic pressure. In this paper, we developed a new pulsatile conduit-shaped VAD that has two valves. This device removes the possibility of blood regurgitation and has a small stationary area even when the pumping force is extremely weak. We estimated the characteristics of the device by measuring the outflow and the pressure of the pump in in-vitro and in-vivo experiments.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.119-124
• /
• 2014

A Ventricular assist device (VAD) is one of the most efficient treatments to raise the survivability of the end stage heart failure patient. However, some of LVAD patients have died for the failures and improper control of LVAD. To detect critical dangers in LVAD, the monitoring methods of LVAD outflow have been requested, because it can be affected by patient's hemodynamic states and abnormal conditions of LVAD. In the case of an external pulsatile LVAD, the air movement through the air line can be used to estimate LVAD outflow. In this study, the air movement in the air-line of the extracorporeal pulsatile LVAD was measured with a differential pressure sensor between different points. The precise estimation of air movement could be achieved by additional measurement of air pressure. In a series of in-vitro experiments, the LVAD outflow were changed according to the afterload of LVAD and the differential pressure of LVAD didn't have close correlation with the LVAD outflow that were measured with an ultrasonic flowmeter at the same time. However, new precise estimation with the data from differential pressure and one point pressure in the air-line showed higher correlations with LVAD outflow.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.38 no.12
• /
• pp.971-974
• /
• 2014

A ventricular assist device (VAD) is used for bridge to heart transplantation and heart diseases. Knowing the status of a pneumatic pulsatile VAD when implanting it into the body is important: when the velocity of blood flow through the VAD is slow, a thrombus may occur, and thrombosis can be fatal to a patient. In order to determine the state of a VAD, various sensors need to be implanted. Because this introduces the risk of infection and difficulties with sensor management, we developed a method for estimating the state of a VAD indirectly via the pressure in an air tube that can be measured in vitro. We compared the measured values to in vitro experimental results. The estimated and measured values showed some errors, but the accuracy can be improved by refining the estimation process to minimize the risk of infection.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.500-506
• /
• 2012

A method to model left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and detect suction occurrence for safe LVAD operation is presented. An axial flow blood pump as a LVAD has been used to assist patient with heart problems. While an axial flow blood pump, a kind of a non-pulsatile pump, has relative advantages of small size and efficiency compared to pulsatile devices, it has a difficulty in determining a safe pump operating condition. It can show different pump operating statuses such as a normal status and a suction status whether suction occurs in left ventricle or not. A fuzzy subtractive clustering method is used to determine a model of the axial flow blood pump with this pump operating characteristic and the developed pump model can provide blood flow estimates before and after suction occurrence in left ventricle. Also, a fuzzy subtractive clustering method is utilized to develop a suction detection model which can identify whether suction occurs in left ventricle or not.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.313-320
• /
• 1998

Tri-phasic pulsatile flow is the general flow pattern of human circulary system. In emulating the various situation of cardiovascular system, it is essential to make tri-phasic source flow. To emulate tri-phasic pulsatile flow, we used electro-hydronic style LVAD(Left Ventricular Assist Device) with glass phantom and rubber tube. We have selected control parameters and examined the changing effect of each parameter by using Doppler ultrasound. In this experiment, it was shown that the distal compliance and the break time were the major factors to form tri-phasic flow. The results make it possible to emulate and explain the various situation of human vascular system. In this point, this results will be an useful method in the clinic application.