Investigation of shear-induced platelet activation in ventricular assist device

Abstract

Due to the scarcity of organ donations, ventricular assist devices are the most accessible treatment for patients with advanced heart failure. Since their development, these devices have helped thousands of patients and could have helped even more had it not been for some of the complications they still experience. Among the most common complications are thrombosis and hemolysis. The purpose of this paper is to numerically investigate the effect of the blade angle and the blade count on the hydraulic properties of a newly designed ventricular assist device, as well as the potential for shear-induced platelet activation. The study was conducted on several models with different blade angles and blade counts using a variety of rotational speeds. Analysis of the obtained results showed a significant improvement in the pressure rise and the hydraulic efficiency in models with higher blade angle and lower blade count. In contrast, the other models showed slight improvement or deterioration of the hydraulic performance. In terms of shear-induced platelet activation, although the performance of all models was within an acceptable range, models with a higher blade angle and lower blade count had the lowest average platelet activation state.