Hybrid Cardiovascular Simulator - An Application for the Mechanical Assistance by an Intra-aortic Balloon Pump

The United States Food and Drug Administration agency is encouraging to use modeling and simulation in medical device evaluation, in order to reduce reliance on animal models and human data, and reduce costs and speed innovation. To address this challenge various models and simulators have been developed that play the role of artificial/virtual patients. A previously elaborated in IBBE PAS a hybrid (hydro-computer) simulator was adapted to perform simulations of the left ventricular mechanical assistance by the intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP). To implement this, some hardware and software changes were made to the simulator, in particular the following functionalities were added: connecting a physical aorta model; variable aortic compliance by introducing a numerical capacitor into the hybrid circulatory model; a rigid tube model of the aorta with an orifice system to simulate IABP support. Static characteristics were measured for both physical models of the aorta (silicone tubes) and the model with a numerical capacitor. IABP assistance was simulated using the developed aortic model. The preliminary simulation results show that the system is behaving correctly. The effects of IABP mechanical assistance of the left ventricle observed in the simulator are consistent with clinical practice. The application for simulations of IABP mechanical assistance extends the whole IBBE PAS hybrid simulator functionalities in terms of the mechanical heart assistance simulations.