Development of an implantable oxygenator with cross-flow pump.

Thrombogenicity, a problem with long-term artificial lungs, is caused by blood-biomaterial interactions and is made worse by nonuniform flow, which also causes decreased gas exchange. To overcome these obstacles, we changed the inlet and added a uniform flow pump to our previous oxygenator design. Conventional membrane oxygenators have a (1/2)-inch port for the inlet of blood.

In vitro evaluation of a newly developed implantable artificial lung.

A prototype of an implantable artificial lung without a pump (Prototype II) has been tested. A commercially available membrane oxygenator, MENOX AL6000alpha (Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc., Tokyo, Japan), was used as a basic model.

New method for the detection of thrombus formation in cardiovascular devices: optical sensor evaluation in a flow chamber model.

We proposed a new method of detecting the onset of thrombus formation based upon the backscattered light intensity changes caused by the alteration of blood flow behavior in the cardiopulmonary devices. In an optical senor based upon the First Order Scattering theory, the relationship between the backscattered light intensity and hematocrit exhibited a monotonically decaying curve for the hematocrit level greater than 45%. To distinguish the effect either by thrombus formation or erythrocyte aggregation on the back-scattered light intensity with a flow chamber connected to a rabbit arterial-venous bypass model, we generated an oscillatory flow using a roller pump and analyzed the results using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method.

Design and development of an artificial implantable lung using multiobjective genetic algorithm: evaluation of gas exchange performance.

In this study, we constructed an automatic optimization system applying the multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA) and developed an artificial implantable lung possessing antithrombogenicity and high gas exchange performance based upon fluid dynamics. This system consists of a three dimenstional CAD system, computational fluid dynamics software, and the multiobjective optimization tool modeFRONTIER (ESTECO CO., Trieste, Italy).

Flow vectorial analysis in an artificial implantable lung.

An artificial implantable lung would be a useful device to support patients awaiting lung transplantation. A suitable device must offer low resistance and adequate gas exchange, be impermeable to plasma, and nonthrombogenic. Although plasma permeability is an intrinsic quality of the materials, the other requirements are largely a function of device geometry, particularly as it relates to fluid dynamics.