Yeni heart turcica centrifugal yapay kalp pompası sisteminin ın vitro kan testleri

Heart failures are the most common diseases causing deaths globally. According to the report of International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, there are approximately 50,000 patients all around the world who are candidates for heart transplant and only about 5,000 heart transplantations can be performed each year in the world. According to the data announced by Turkish Ministry of Health, about 300 patients were registered in the waiting list for heart transplantation and only 63 heart transplantations were performed in 2013. Whereas, the unregistered number of patients waiting for heart transplantation in Turkey are estimated around 3,000 by the cardiovascular surgeons. Therefore, artificial heart pump and support systems become the only solution for these patients. Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) play a vital role in the survival of these patients, however imported heart pumps are not affordable for every heart patient due to their high prices. Consequently, research on the development of VADs is of vital importance. This research is a part of developing New Heart Turcica Centrifugal (NHTC) as the first implantable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) produced in Turkey. It covers in vitro blood tests performed with the aim of evaluating the hemolytic performance of the developed LVAD and investigates the effects of different bearing designs on hemolysis. Five prototypes with different bearings were designed and manufactured for the blood tests under various conditions. The tests were conducted in a small scale test loop which was built in order to minimize the amount of blood to be used. Normalized index of hemolysis (N.I.H.) was calculated for these tests according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F 1841-97 standards. The final prototype of this study showed excellent performance by achieving N.I.H. values of 0.002 g/100L where blood pumps are considered antitraumatic as long as their N.I.H. values remain under 0.01 g/100L.