ARLINGTON , Va., July 8, 2004 -- A team of biomedical engineers from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have created a prototype for a potentially cheaper, safer, and more efficient circular heart pump.

"I think there's no question that this heart pump has the potential to be the standard for artificial heart pumps," said biomedical engineer Richard W. Smalling, M.D., Ph.D., director of the cardiology division of the UT Medical School and a leader of the project. "It's a much cleaner way to move the blood."

Smalling, who believes the novel design could some day save many hundreds of patients, said the two kinds of heart pumps available in the United States both have major drawbacks.

In diaphragm-type devices, blood tends to pool at the borders of the diaphragm and form small clots, which are prone to breaking off and causing strokes, as well as other circulatory disorders. Turbine-type devices propel the blood at such high speeds that they tend to tear the blood cells apart, releasing the hemoglobin contained in the red cells – an event that, in some cases, can damage the kidneys.

Dubbed the Ulert-UT Circular Heart after its inventor, Alan Ulert, M.D., the novel left ventricle assist device (LVAD) uses two independent pistons propelled by electromagnets to push blood inside a circular tube. This design eliminates the need for external valves and has the potential to decrease the risk of blood clotting, strokes and damage to the blood itself.

The electromagnetic drive mechanism in the circular heart pump could be programmed to produce various flow configurations, ranging from almost steady flow to moderately pulsing flow, depending on how the patient's body reacts. The left ventricle does about 80 percent of the heart's work.

“It's different and exciting,” said Raul G. Longoria, Ph.D., UT Austin associate professor of mechanical engineering. “We're hoping to achieve a device that doesn't have the harmful effects on the blood that the others do.” Longoria helped build a 1-foot diameter prototype of the pump. Eventually, the team hopes to reduce the pump to about the size of a portable CD player for implantation into patients.

Smalling found Longoria through a relationship already established by a Whitaker Development Award. “This work is the fruit of new collaborations between UT Austin biomedical engineering and the Texas Medical Center and a direct result of the Whitaker award we got. It's one of many collaborations that have developed,” said Kenneth R. Diller, professor and chairman of UT Austin Biomedical Engineering Department. “It could not have happened without the award.”

After scaling down the prototype, the researchers plan to conduct animal trials at the UT Health Science Center at Houston

Contact:
Richard Smalling, UT Health Science Center at Houston
Raul Longoria, UT Austin
Mark Bowman, The Whitaker Foundation