Cohrs Nicholas H, Petrou Anastasios, Loepfe Michael, Yliruka Maria, Schumacher Christoph M, Kohll A Xavier, Starck Christoph T, Schmid Daners Marianne, Meboldt Mirko, Falk Volkmar, Stark Wendelin J
Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Product Development Group Zurich, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Artif Organs. 2017 Oct;41(10):948-958. doi: 10.1111/aor.12956. Epub 2017 Jul 10.
The technology of 3D-printing has allowed the production of entirely soft pumps with complex chamber geometries. We used this technique to develop a completely soft pneumatically driven total artificial heart from silicone elastomers and evaluated its performance on a hybrid mock circulation. The goal of this study is to present an innovative concept of a soft total artificial heart (sTAH). Using the form of a human heart, we designed a sTAH, which consists of only two ventricles and produced it using a 3D-printing, lost-wax casting technique. The diastolic properties of the sTAH were defined and the performance of the sTAH was evaluated on a hybrid mock circulation under various physiological conditions. The sTAH achieved a blood flow of 2.2 L/min against a systemic vascular resistance of 1.11 mm Hg s/mL (afterload), when operated at 80 bpm. At the same time, the mean pulmonary venous pressure (preload) was fixed at 10 mm Hg. Furthermore, an aortic pulse pressure of 35 mm Hg was measured, with a mean aortic pressure of 48 mm Hg. The sTAH generated physiologically shaped signals of blood flow and pressures by mimicking the movement of a real heart. The preliminary results of this study show a promising potential of the soft pumps in heart replacements. Further work, focused on increasing blood flow and in turn aortic pressure is required.
3D打印技术能够制造出具有复杂腔室几何形状的全软质泵。我们利用这项技术，用硅橡胶开发出了一款完全软质的气动全人工心脏，并在混合模拟循环系统上评估了其性能。本研究的目的是提出一种创新的软质全人工心脏（sTAH）概念。我们以人类心脏的形态设计了一款仅由两个心室组成的sTAH，并采用3D打印失蜡铸造技术制造了它。定义了sTAH的舒张特性，并在各种生理条件下的混合模拟循环系统上评估了sTAH的性能。当以80次/分钟的频率运行时，sTAH在1.11 mmHg·s/mL的全身血管阻力（后负荷）下实现了2.2 L/min的血流量。同时，平均肺静脉压（前负荷）固定在10 mmHg。此外，测得主动脉脉压为35 mmHg，平均主动脉压为48 mmHg。sTAH通过模拟真实心脏的运动，产生了具有生理形状的血流和压力信号。本研究的初步结果显示了软质泵在心脏置换方面具有广阔的应用潜力。需要进一步开展工作，重点是增加血流量，进而提高主动脉压力。
