Mathematical evaluation of cardiac beat synchronization control used for a rotary blood pump.

We studied a control method of rotary blood pumps (RBPs), which is called as the cardiac beat synchronization (CBS) system. Usually, RBPs operate at constant target rotational speed, meanwhile, the CBS system modulates target speed synchronizing with cardiac beat. We built a computer simulation method to evaluate the CBS system. This simulator acquires a mathematical model of a circulatory system including a RBP and can provide us the theoretical hemodynamics when our control method is applied. We compared theoretical results with experimental ones with the model focusing on both pulsatility and aortic valve (AV) opening interval enhanced by the CBS system. Our simulator could reproduce behavior of the circulatory system whether the RBP is connected or not. Comparison among no RBP, constant assist, systolic assist, and diastolic assist modes indicated that pulsatility is enhanced with systolic assist theoretically. While systolic assist decreased AV opening interval, diastolic assist made it longer than the ones in other control strategies.