For long-term application of the rotary pumps, it is necessary to solve the problems of bearing wear and thrombosis along the bearing. Currently, many investigators choose the magnetic bearing to realize zero-friction and no contact between the rotor and stator; the former avoids the mechanical wear and the latter eliminates the possibility of thrombus formation. We tried and found that it is difficult to apply a magnetic bearing to rotary pump without disturbing its simplicity, reliability and implantable; therefore, we have developed a much simpler and much more creative approach to achieving the same results. Instead of the sliding bearing, a rolling bearing has been devised for the pump; its friction is about 1/15 of the sliding bearing. Furthermore, a wear-proof material of ultra-high-molecular weight polythene has been adopted in making the rollers, their anti-wear property in 8 times better than that of metal. Thereby, the service life of the bearing has extended to several years. For preventing the thrombus formation along the bearing, the impeller reciprocation axially as the impeller changes its rotating speed periodically to produce a pulsatile flow. The reciprocation is a result of the effects of a magnetic force between the motor rotor and stator, and a hydraulic force between the blood flow and the impeller. Similar to piston pump, the oscillating impeller can make the blood in and out of the bearing, resulting in wash-out once a circle. This is obviously beneficial to preventing thrombosis along the bearing and in the pump. The endurance tests with saline of this novel pump demonstrated a durability of the device. It promises to be able to assist the circulation of the patients permanently and to be able to replace the heart transplantation in the future.
Heart-Assist Devices ; Magnetics ; instrumentation ; Prosthesis Design ; Thrombosis ; prevention & control

Magnetic bearing has no mechanical contact between the rotor and stator. And a rotary pump with magnetic bearing has therefore no mechanical wear and thrombosis due to bearing. The available magnetic bearings, however, are devised with electric magnets, need complicated control and remarkable energy consumption. Resultantly, it is difficult to apply an electric magnetic bearing to rotary pump without disturbing its simplicity, implantability and reliability. The authors have developed a levitated impeller pump merely with permanent magnets. The rotor is supported by permanent magnetic forces radially. On one side of the rotor, the impeller is fixed; and on the other side of the rotor, the driven magnets are mounted. Opposite to this driven magnets, a driving motor coil with iron corn magnets is fastened to the motor axis. Thereafter, the motor drives the rotor via a rotating magnetic field. By laboratory tests with saline, if the rotor stands still or rotates under 4,000 rpm, the rotor has one-point contact axially with the driving motor coil. The contacting point is located in the center of the rotor. As the rotating speed increases gradually to more than 4,000 rpm, the rotor will detache from the stator axially. Then the rotor will be fully levitated. Since the axial levitation is produced by hydraulic force and the driven magnets have a gyro-effect, the rotor rotates very steadly during levitation. As a left ventricular assist device, the pump works in a rotating speed range of 5,000-8,000 rpm, the levitation of the impeller hence is ensured by practical use of the pump.
Equipment Design ; Heart-Assist Devices ; Magnetics ; instrumentation

One of the internal reasons resulting in hemolysis and thrombi is the hemodynamics. Many studies show that irregular flow patterns and shear stress result in the damage of blood cells. With the rapid development of computer technology, simulation for such microdynamics becomes possible. Computational fluid dynamics was applied to predict the flow in the streamlined blood pump and a pump with straight vanes. After the analysis of flow patterns and the distribution of shear stress, it was concluded that in the same boundary conditions, the blood pump based on streamlined design had better hemodynamics than the pump with straight vanes and caused less
Computational Biology ; Computer Simulation ; Heart-Assist Devices ; Hemolysis ; physiology ; Hemorheology ; Prosthesis Design ; Shear Strength

In order to study the cardiovascular hemodynamic characteristics and evaluate the blood pump, we made a series of cardiovascular simulation devices which could reflect the hemodynamics of blood circulation system by the elastic chamber model, and tested the relations between cardiovascular hemodynamic parameters (such as systole pressure, diastole pressure, average pressure, pulsative pressure, flow rate) and ventricular afterload (peripheral resistance and vascular compliance) as well as cardiac output, diastolic period, systole period and preload. The effect of the parameters on the arterial pressure and flow rate was estimated when any one of the parameters was changed. The result of simulating experiment was coincided with that deduced from mathematical model and physiologic condition. Therefore the series of cardiovascular simulation devices can reflect the hemodynamics of blood circulation.
Blood Pressure ; physiology ; Cardiac Output ; physiology ; Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena ; In Vitro Techniques ; Models, Cardiovascular ; Vascular Resistance ; physiology

To evaluate the effect of impeller design on pump hemolysis, five impellers with different number of vanes or different vane angles were manufactured and tested in one pump for hemolysis comparison. The impellers are made to have the same dimension and same logarithmic spiral vane from which coincide with the stream surfaces in the pump, according to the analytical and three-dimensional design method developed by the authors. Consequently, an impeller with 6 vanes and 30 degrees vane angle has the lowest hemolysis index. This result agrees with the theoretical analyses of other investigators searching optimal number of vanes and vane angle to achieve the highest efficiency of the pump.
Heart-Assist Devices ; adverse effects ; Hemolysis ; Humans ; In Vitro Techniques ; Prosthesis Design