School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
Artif Organs. 2013 Jun;37(6):549-60. doi: 10.1111/aor.12109.
This article presents a new device designed to simulate in vitro flow rates, pressures, and other parameters representing normal and diseased conditions of the human cardiovascular system. Such devices are sometimes called bioreactors or "mock" simulator of cardiovascular loops (SCVLs) in literature. Most SCVLs simulate the systemic circulation only and have inherent limitations in studying the interaction of left and right sides of circulation. Those SCVLs that include both left and right sides of the circulation utilize header reservoirs simulating cycles with constant atrial pressures. The SCVL described in this article includes models for all four chambers of the heart, and the systemic and pulmonary circulation loops. Each heart chamber is accurately activated by a separate linear motor to simulate the suction and ejection stages, thus capturing important features in the perfusion waveforms. Four mechanical heart valves corresponding to mitral, pulmonary, tricuspid, and aortic are used to control the desired unidirectional flow. This SCVL can emulate different physiological and pathological conditions of the human cardiovascular system by controlling the different parameters of blood circulation through the vascular tree (mainly the resistance, compliance, and elastance of the heart chambers). In this study, four cases were simulated: healthy, congestive heart failure, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction conditions, and left ventricular dysfunction with the addition of a mechanical circulatory support (MCS) device. Hemodynamic parameters including resistance, pressure, and flow have been investigated at aortic sinus, carotid artery, and pulmonary artery, respectively. The addition of an MCS device resulted in a significant reduction in mean blood pressure and re-establishment of cardiac output. In all cases, the experimental results are compared with human physiology and numerical simulations. The results show the capability of the SCVL to replicate various physiological and pathological conditions with and without MCS.
本文提出了一种新的设备，旨在模拟体外流量、压力和其他参数，以代表人体心血管系统的正常和病变情况。这种设备有时在文献中被称为生物反应器或心血管回路的“模拟”模拟器（SCVL）。大多数 SCVL 仅模拟全身循环，在研究循环左右两侧的相互作用方面存在固有局限性。那些包括循环左右两侧的 SCVL 利用模拟心房压力恒定的循环的头储液器。本文中描述的 SCVL 包括心脏的所有四个腔室以及全身和肺循环回路的模型。每个心脏腔室都由单独的线性电机精确激活，以模拟抽吸和喷射阶段，从而捕获灌注波形中的重要特征。四个机械心脏瓣膜对应于二尖瓣、肺动脉瓣、三尖瓣和主动脉瓣，用于控制所需的单向流动。通过控制血管树（主要是心脏腔室的阻力、顺应性和弹性）中的血液循环的不同参数，该 SCVL 可以模拟人体心血管系统的不同生理和病理状况。在这项研究中，模拟了四种情况：健康、充血性心力衰竭、左心室舒张功能障碍和左心室功能障碍并添加机械循环支持（MCS）设备。在主动脉窦、颈动脉和肺动脉处分别研究了血流动力学参数，包括阻力、压力和流量。添加 MCS 设备可显著降低平均血压并重新建立心输出量。在所有情况下，将实验结果与人体生理学和数值模拟进行了比较。结果表明，SCVL 具有复制有和没有 MCS 的各种生理和病理状况的能力。
