Design, manufacturing and testing of a left-heart simulator based on a passively beating porcine heart and compatible with ViVitro's Pulse Duplicator system

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ViVitro Labs Inc. seeks to enhance their line of research/development cardiovascular testing products to take advantage of the pulsatile pump and data acquisition systems found in their Pulse Duplicator while allowing the user to experiment on whole ex-vivo pig hearts. In such applications, the non-beating hearts would be simply harvested at a slaughterhouse and the pulsatile flow driven by the external pumping system. For users not primarily interested in prosthetic valves, ex-vivo pig hearts will make it possible to test medical devices and surgical procedures on the aortic and mitral valves with excellent anatomical fidelity. The objectives of the proposed project are to (iteratively) design, manufacture, test and prove the effectiveness of new mechanical components compatible with existing components of ViVitro's Pulse Duplicator system to achieve quick and reliable set-up of experiments on ex-vivo pig hearts. The applicant's Cardiovascular Mechanics Laboratory (CML) at the University of Ottawa secured the acquisition of one ViVitro Pulse Duplicator back in 2006, thanks to an NSERC RTI grant. Over the years, the applicant and his team have used the system in its original version, as well as after significant in-house modifications to enable testing of whole porcine aortic roots and valves. ViVitro's Pulse Duplicator has provided the experimental benchmark necessary for the CML to develop and validate several numerical models of the aortic valve, with increasing levels of complexity, accuracy and clinical relevance. Very opportunely, the CML is at a research point where it needs the very type of system that ViVitro wants to develop. By expanding the range of applicability of ViVitro's equipment, the proposed project will help ViVitro Labs Inc. acquire new market shares and bolster its position as a global leader. This will favourably impact Canada's economy and image as a technology driver.