On-line pressure estimation for a left heart assist device.

Abstract

Long term measurement of blood pressures is essential for control of circulatory systems with artificial hearts or circulatory assist devices. Efforts to obtain reliable continuous direct measurements of blood pressures, however, have not been successful. This paper describes an on-line pressure estimation technique for use with a portable pneumatically driven left heart assist device. The on-line maximum likelihood algorithms are used for the estimation with the technique based on the use of physical models of the components of the driver and blood pump system. This technique estimates the inlet and outlet pressures of the blood pump. The directly measured driving air pressure and piston position of the pneumatic actuator are used for the estimation. In vitro and in vivo experiments were made to test the use of the on-line estimation technique. The results show successful linear correlations between the actual pressures and their estimates. This technique offers the following advantages: accurate pressure information for on-line control, accessibility to the transducers for recalibration, and noninvasive location of the transducers.