A modular computer controlled mock circulatory system to reproduce the interaction between the circulatory system and a left ventricle assist device (LVAD).

The interaction between the circulatory network and heart assist device can be described analyzing it in term of ventricular and arterial elastances. By this point of view the presence of the heart assist device can be interpreted in terms of arterial elastance variations. A modular mock circulatory system has been designed according to this approach. It is presently an open loop representation of the circulatory system including atrium, natural ventricle and arterial tree modules. The model of the natural ventricle mimics the Starling law of the heart and is based on a computer controlled cylinder-piston system. The model of the arterial tree is a modified windkessel with a computer controlled peripheral resistance. Control, data acquisition and presentation functions complete the system. Results presented here show the behaviour of the system outlined above for different physiological and pathological heart and circulatory parameters. It is further shown how they are affected by pneumatic LVAD driving parameters (driving pressure and timing). The friendly approach used to access the control parameters of the circulatory system allows to use this mock circulatory system both for studying and training.