Multiscale Analysis of the interactions between a Novel Total Artificial Heart and the Native Cardiovascular System.

仅在英国就有超过50万人患有心力衰竭，每年约有14，000人入院治疗，10，000人死亡。对于那些患有严重终末期心力衰竭的患者，长期生存的唯一希望是心脏移植。然而，由于缺乏供体心脏，英国每年进行的心脏移植手术不到200例。因此，至关重要的是，在找到捐献者之前，可以采用替代治疗方法来延长患者的生命。其中一种方法是用全人工心脏（TAH）完全替换自体心脏。斯堪的纳维亚真实的心脏公司正在开发一种基于正排量泵概念的新型TAH。据推测，与传统的旋转泵送方法相比，这种方法在生理相容性方面具有重大优势。因此，本研究将研究TAH与自体心血管系统之间的相互作用，评估器械的生物相容性，以帮助设计优化和监管批准。将进行特定分析的关注领域将是量化TAH由于停滞或湍流以及泵送机制引起的热影响而导致的血液损伤水平。这将通过使用计算流体动力学（CFD）模拟TAH内的血流和有限元分析（FEA）评估整个结构的热分布来实现。此外，还将通过建立内部数学模型来研究泵送周期产生的脉搏波及其对动脉系统的影响。这项研究的好处是，有助于设计和开发一种新的解决方案，以解决缺乏可用心脏供体的问题，从而延长潜在数千人的生命。这项研究还将通过概述生物不相容区域来影响未来的人工心脏和医疗植入物设计。

Over 500,000 people in the UK alone suffer from heart failure, with around 14,000 admitted to hospital each year and 10,000 deaths. For those patients with severe end-stage heart failure, the only hope of long-term survival is a heart transplant. However, fewer than 200 heart transplants are carried out each year in the UK due to a lack of donor hearts. It is vital therefore that alternative treatments are available to prolong the life of a patient until a donor can be found. One such method is the complete replacement of the native heart with a total artificial heart (TAH)Scandinavian Real Heart AB are developing a novel TAH based on the concept of positive displacement pumps. It is hypothesized that this approach, compared to the traditional rotary pumping method, has major advantages for physiological compatibility. This research will therefore investigate the interactions between the TAH and the native cardiovascular system, assessing the biocompatibility of the device to aid design optimisation and regulatory approval. The areas of interest that will undergo specific analysis will be quantifying the level of blood damage caused by the TAH due to stasis or turbulent flow and the thermal influence due to the pumping mechanism. This will be achieved through the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate the blood flow within the TAH, and finite element analysis (FEA) to assess the thermal distribution throughout the structure. In addition, the pulse wave that is generated by the pumping cycle, and the effect on the arterial system will also be investigated through the creation of in-house mathematical models.The benefits of this research would be to aid the design and development of a novel solution to the lack of available heart donors, prolonging the life of potentially thousands of people. This research also will also influence future artificial heart and medical implant designs through the outlining of regions of bio-incompatibility.