Calcification of the driving diaphragm in a total artificial heart.

The implications of mineralization on the diaphragm of a TAH were highlighted. The problem was discussed from the point of view of time and site of calcifying deposit formation, and individual patterns of calcification as well as the question of the relationship between mineralization processes and thrombogenicity were considered. Attention was likewise given to actual calcification with regard to its mechanism, and to the risks that the calcification process in an artificial heart pose to the organism. Next, the options to prevent mineralization were reviewed. The issue as analysed especially on the basis of results obtained in the Centre of the State Research project called "Assistance and Replacement of the Heart", Regional Institute of National Health in Brno, Department of Pathological Physiology. It was pointed out that diaphragm calcification can compromise the life of an individual after many years of surviving with an artificial heart. Still, the risk is zero within the first two or three months following artificial heart implantation. The fact was underlined that the last model of a Czechoslovak-made artificial heart, called TNS Brno VII, re-designed in an effort to prevent the breaking away of calcified microemboli from the diaphragm, features optimal athrombogenity. Thus, the clinical version of this brand-new Czechoslovak TAH can be regarded as the best model of an artificial heart to be implanted as a life-saving measure tiding the patient over a period before a cardiac transplantation can be performed.