Design and initial testing of a mock human circulatory loop for left ventricular assist device performance testing.
A mock circulatory loop, which simulates the human circulatory system, is needed to bench test the various versions of continuous flow (CF) left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). This article describes the design and initial testing of such a loop. The loop consists of: (1) pulsatile left and right cardiac simulators; (2) air/water tanks to model the venous and arterial compliances; (3) tygon tubes to model the venous, arterial, and other system flow resistances; and (4) a tuning clamp to model the variation in system resistance characteristics under different cardiac pressure/flow conditions. Several loop measurements were carried out without an LVAD to verify the cardiovascular modeling of a healthy person in sleep, rest, and physical activity, and in different pathological states, and compared to the data found in the literature to validate the loop performance prior to LVAD testing.
Liu
Yingjie
Y
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA.
Allaire
Paul
P
Wood
Houston
H
Olsen
Don
D
D001775:Blood Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D011673:Pulsatile Flow; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*