> Such a pump has no valves, so a patient using the Bivacor heart in its most basic mode would have no pulse. But we recently adapted our device to give it a pulsatile outflow option.
> The pump can run at constant speed, producing continuous blood flow at a constant pressure, and in our early experiments we concentrated on testing this “pulseless” mode. But it’s easy to change its speed, and our later experiments proved that controlled speed changes could produce a wide range of flow and pressure characteristics. Running the pump first at high speed (sending out more blood) and then at low speed (sending out less) creates something resembling a biological heart’s pulse; rapidly alternating these two speeds creates something that looks like a normal heartbeat.
> We’re now working primarily in that pulsatile mode. Within cardiology, there’s an open debate about whether a pulse is necessary for good health… [0]
The ieee.org article has significantly more detail and is a fascinating read.
> The pump can run at constant speed, producing continuous blood flow at a constant pressure, and in our early experiments we concentrated on testing this “pulseless” mode. But it’s easy to change its speed, and our later experiments proved that controlled speed changes could produce a wide range of flow and pressure characteristics. Running the pump first at high speed (sending out more blood) and then at low speed (sending out less) creates something resembling a biological heart’s pulse; rapidly alternating these two speeds creates something that looks like a normal heartbeat.
> We’re now working primarily in that pulsatile mode. Within cardiology, there’s an open debate about whether a pulse is necessary for good health… [0]
The ieee.org article has significantly more detail and is a fascinating read.
- [0] https://spectrum.ieee.org/this-maglev-heart-could-keep-cardi...