Simulation of aortic valve dynamics during ventricular support

Existing commercially-used left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) make no attempt to automatically detect the aortic valve condition in their control methods to optimize ventricular assistance. An important design goal for LVADs is the ability to reliably and accurately detect aortic valve (AV) states during heart pump support that can cause harmful effects on AV structure and function. In this paper, we have investigated the correlation between AV performance and LVAD motor current as well as speed set points, simulating aortic valve blood flow, pressure, pump flow and LV mechanics using a simplified two-dimensional fluid-structure interaction finite-element model of AV dynamics.