IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2019 Apr;66(4):1082-1093. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2018.2866782. Epub 2018 Aug 22.
Microfluidic artificial lungs (μALs) are being researched for future clinical use due to the potential for increased gas exchange efficiency, small blood contacting surface area, small priming volume, and biomimetic blood flow paths. However, a current roadblock to clinical use is the need to stack hundreds to thousands of these small-scale μALs in parallel to reach clinically relevant blood flows. The need for so many layers not only increases the complexity and projected cost to manufacture a μAL, but also could result in devices which are cumbersome, and, therefore, not suitable for portable artificial lung systems.
Here, we describe the design analysis and optimization of a single-layer μAL that simultaneously calculates rated blood flow, blood contacting surface area, blood volume, pressure drop, and shear stress as a function of blood channel height using previously developed closed-form mathematical equations. A μAL designed using this procedure is then implemented and tested.
The resulting device exhibits a rated flow of 17 mL/min and reduces the number of layers required for clinically relevant μAL devices by a factor of up to 32X compared to previous work.
This procedure could significantly reduce manufacturing complexity as well as eliminate a barrier to the clinical application of these promising devices.
The described method results in the highest rated flow for any single-layer μAL to date.
由于微流控人工肺（μAL）具有增加气体交换效率、减小血液接触表面积、减小预充体积和仿生血流路径等潜在优势，因此正在研究其未来的临床应用。然而，目前临床应用的一个障碍是需要将数百到数千个这种小规模的 μAL 堆叠在一起以达到临床相关的血流。如此多的层不仅增加了 μAL 制造的复杂性和预计成本，而且还可能导致设备体积庞大，不适合便携式人工肺系统。
在这里，我们描述了一种单层 μAL 的设计分析和优化，该 μAL 同时使用先前开发的封闭形式数学方程计算血液通道高度作为函数的额定血流量、血液接触表面积、血液体积、压降和剪切应力。然后实施和测试了使用此程序设计的 μAL。
所得到的装置显示出 17 毫升/分钟的额定流量，与以前的工作相比，将临床相关 μAL 装置所需的层数减少了高达 32 倍。
该程序可以显著降低制造复杂性，并消除这些有前途的设备临床应用的障碍。
所描述的方法导致迄今为止任何单层 μAL 的最高额定流量。
