Estimation of Ventricular Assist Device Outflow with the Pressures in Air Pressure Line

Abstract: A Ventricular assist device (VAD) is one of the most efficient treatments to raise the survivability of the end stage heart failure patient. However, some of LVAD patients have died for the failures and improper control of LVAD. To detect critical dangers in LVAD, the monitoring methods of LVAD outflow have been requested, because it can be affected by patient’s hemodynamic states and abnormal conditions of LVAD. In the case of an external pul-satile LVAD, the air movement through the air line can be used to estimate LVAD outflow. In this study, the air move-ment in the air-line of the extracorporeal pulsatile LVAD was measured with a differential pressure sensor between different points. The precise estimation of air movement could be achieved by additional measurement of air pres-sure. In a series of in-vitro experiments, the LVAD outflow were changed according to the afterload of LVAD and the differential pressure of LVAD didn’t have close correlation with the LVAD outflow that were measured with an ultrasonic flowmeter at the same time. However, new precise estimation with the data from differential pressure an