title: The Heartmate II: design and development of a fully sealed axial flow left ventricular assist system.
abstract: Our group is developing the control and power transmission components required to implement a permanent and fully sealed left ventricular assist system (LVAS). Starting with the percutaneously powered HeartMate II blood pump, our development efforts are focused in the following areas: a complete redesign of the transcutaneous energy transmission system (TETS) to include a rectification network and autonomous voltage regulation within the secondary coil, a hermetically sealed electronics package containing a miniaturized implementation of the existing redundant drive and control electronics with several power-input options, an implanted rechargeable lithium ion battery pack capable of providing up to 1 h of untethered operation, implantable electrical connectors that allow components to be connected after placement in the body or to be replaced if needed, and a radio telemetry subsystem to transmit diagnostic information and to permit remote adjustment of selected parameters.
authors.affiliation: Thermo Cardiosystems Inc. (now Thoratec Corp.), Woburn, Massachusetts, USA. david.burke@thoratec.com
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Parsaie
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Poirier
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maher
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D013686:Telemetry