High Fidelity Simulation of HeartMate III Left Ventricle Assist Devices

The ongoing epidemic of advanced heart failure in the United States has caused a sharp rise in the utilization of heart pumps, known as left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), over the last decade. Despite technological improvements in the current generation of LVADs, LVAD-supported patients remain prone to complications resulting from enormously altered hemodynamics, which could contribute to a stroke or mortality while on device support. The HeartMate III is the latest generation centrifugal continuous LVAD which initiates an artificial pulse to aid in improving blood circulation by pumping blood from the left ventricle to the aorta. Studies, to date, on the HeartMate III are very limited and explore the altered hemodynamics effect on blood flow only at a specific RPM and flow rate and using typically wall shear stress (WSS). This study entails the evaluation of not only WSS for various conditions, but also identifies the contribution of temporal variation of RPM on WSS and WSS-related parameters using high-fidelity simulations. Harmonic analysis will be conducted to understand the contribution of various frequencies generated by the impeller rotation, interaction of flow around impeller's blades, as well as temporal variation of RPM on WSS and WSS-related parameters.