Journal article
Advancement of the Dragon Heart 7-Series for Pediatric Patients With Heart Failure
Artificial organs, v 49(5), pp 790-801
May 2025
PMID: 39797382
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Safe and effective pediatric blood pumps continue to lag far behind those developed for adults. To address this growing unmet clinical need, we are developing a hybrid, continuous-flow, magnetically levitated, pediatric total artificial heart (TAH). Our hybrid TAH design, the Dragon Heart (DH), integrates both an axial flow and centrifugal flow blood pump within a single, compact housing. The axial pump is embedded in the central hub region of the centrifugal pump, and both pumps rotate around a common central axis, while maintaining separate fluid domains.
In this work, we concentrated our design and development effort on the centrifugal blood pump by performing computational modeling. An iterative process was employed to improve the DH design. The pressure generation, scalar stress levels, and fluid forces exerted on the magnetically levitated impellers were computationally estimated. A shaft driven centrifugal prototype was also manufactured and tested using a hydraulic flow loop circulating a water-glycerol blood analog. Pressure and flow performance of the pump prototype was measured for a given rotational speed for comparison to computational predictions.
Our design achieved the target pump pressures of 60-140 mm Hg for flow rates of 1-5 L/min, and strong agreement in pressure rise was demonstrated between the experimental data and simulation results (less than 10% deviation on average). Fluid stress levels were, however, found to exceed thresholds in the outflow region of the pump, and fluid residence times were less than 600 ms.
The findings of this work demonstrate that the more compact, next-gen DH's centrifugal pump design is able to achieve pressure-capacity requirements. Next steps will require a focused strategy to reduce hemolytic potential and to integrate magnetic suspension components for full rotor levitation.
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Details
- Title
- Advancement of the Dragon Heart 7-Series for Pediatric Patients With Heart Failure
- Creators
- Giselle C Matlis - Drexel University, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health SystemsThomas C Palazzolo - BioCirc Research Laboratory, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USAJonathan E M Lawley - Rochester Institute of TechnologySteven W Day - Rochester Institute of TechnologyEmily Woodland - Drexel UniversityVakhtang Tchantchaleishvili - Thomas Jefferson UniversityRandy M Stevens - Drexel University, PediatricsAmy L Throckmorton - Drexel University, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems
- Publication Details
- Artificial organs, v 49(5), pp 790-801
- Grant note
- R01 HL153536 / NHLBI NIH HHS 24PRE1189261 / American Heart Association R01HL153536 / NHLBI NIH HHS P200A210018 / U.S. Department of Education GAANN
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Pediatrics; School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001394236700001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85214827673
- Other Identifier
- 991022018793604721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Engineering, Biomedical
- Transplantation