Flow rate prediction of a percutaneous ventricular assist device using nonlinear circuit analysis

In this paper, a percutaneous ventricular assist system, including a centrifugal blood pump, an atrial drainage cannula, and different sizes of arterial perfusion cannulae, is modeled as a nonlinear circuit. This model is used to predict the blood flow rate through the device under various pre-specified left atrial pressure (LAP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and pump speed. The flow rate is predicted by solving a quadratic equation while coefficients in the equation are scaled, depending on the arterial cannula configurations. The predictions are compared with data from a fluid circulation experiment. The error indices are less than 6% in all of the test configurations.