Development of tests to evaluate candidate elastomers for artificial heart diaphragms.
Blood pump diaphragms are required to be biocompatible and must be capable of long-term flexing without failure. There are currently only a few elastomers that are competing for acceptance in this application. Introduction of other candidate elastomers (including modifications to currently used materials) for these applications is hindered by a lack of accepted short-term in vitro testing methodology to evaluate alternate materials. Accelerated fatigue testing methodology has been developed that will predict long-term in vivo performance of candidate materials for artificial heart diaphragms. A 100-position fatigue testing machine was designed and built for operation in a controlled environment. This machine, along with a previously constructed 30-position fatigue tester, has allowed the generation of fatigue data on 13 elastomeric materials under a wide variety of conditions. The results of the relatively short-term fatigue tests have been shown to correlate well with longer-term fatigue tests.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Akron, Ohio 44325.
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McMillin
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006354:Heart, Artificial; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D009387:Neoprene; D010539:Permeability; D011140:Polyurethanes; D012408:Rubber; D012826:Silicone Elastomers
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011140:Polyurethanes; D012826:Silicone Elastomers; D012408:Rubber; D009387:Neoprene