title: Flow visualization in a centrifugal blood pump with an eccentric inlet port.
abstract: Flow visualization analysis was applied to the Baylor/Miwatec centrifugal artificial heart to evaluate its fluid dynamic characteristics regarding antithrombogenicity. An eccentric vortex was found both in the upper and the lower gaps of the impeller, which is supposed to be caused by the eccentric inlet port. Therefore, one-way flow toward the outlet is formed and washes the pivot. The combination of an eccentric vortex and a pivot bearing that is washed is unique to the Baylor/Miwatec pump. For the male pivots exposed to periodic wash, the minimum shear rate around the bottom pivot was estimated to be 650/s, which is higher than the threshold for thrombus formation shown by other studies. The wall shear rate at the impeller bottom surface was found to be larger in the top contact mode than in the bottom contact mode.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Namiki 1-2, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8564, Japan. yamane.t@aist.go.jp
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamane
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kodama
authors.forename: Yoshiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinohara
authors.forename: Yukihiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nosé
mesh_terms: D001243:Assisted Circulation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001698:Biomedical Engineering; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D004869:Equipment Safety; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity