Development of mock circulation loop for testing cardiovascular device prototypes

Development of mock circulation loop for testing cardiovascular device prototypes.



Funding year: 2007



Amount funded: $28,627



Lead researcher:
Dr Daniel Timms BEng, PhD



Research team:
Dr Keith McNeil
Professor Mark Pearcy BSc, PhD
Dr John Dunning BSc, MB, ChB, FRCS, FRCS (C/Th)
Dr John Fraser MBChB, MRCP, FRCA, FFARCSI, FJFICM



Location of research:
The Prince Charles Hospital & Innovation Laboratory, Australian Red Cross Blood Service Brisbane



Project description:
The aim of this project is to use an engineering approach to further develop a cardiovascular test rig to closely mimic acute and chronic heart failure conditions. The device will test the effectiveness of devices such as total artificial hearts, ventricular assist devices, cardiovascular stents, mechanical heart valves and artificial lungs.

The use of mechanical device therapy to treat various cardiovascular diseases is increasing as the population ages and the number of donor organs remains limited.  The Thoracic Medicine Department of TPCH is attempting to address this shortfall by actively supporting cardiovascular device research. Development of an artificial heart has been a major research focus since 2001, for which pre-clinical animal trials are scheduled for early/mid 2007. The parallel development of an in-vitro circulation loop specifically designed to test the performance of this device has greatly assisted in accelerating device improvement.

The research group now wishes to expand the study to cover many more types of cardiovascular devices to include total artificial hearts, ventricular assist devices, cardiovascular stents, mechanical heart valves, artificial lungs etc. In order to accelerate the development of these devices, a suitable in-vitro testing facility that can accommodation this range of devices is required.