Less Invasive and Inotrope-Reduction Approach to Automated Closed-Loop Control of Hemodynamics in Decompensated Heart Failure

We have been developing an automated cardiovascular drug infusion system for simultaneous control of arterial pressure (AP), cardiac output (CO), and left atrial pressure (PLA) in decompensated heart failure (HF). In our prototype system, CO and PLA were measured invasively through thoracotomy. Furthermore, the control logic inevitably required use of inotropes to improve hemodynamics, which was not in line with clinical HF guidelines. The goal of this study was to solve these problems and develop a clinically feasible system. We integrated to the system minimally invasive monitors of CO and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP, surrogates for PLA) that we developed recently. We also redesigned the control logic to reduce the use of inotrope. We applied the newly developed system to nine dogs with decompensated HF. Once activated, our system started to control the infusion of vasodilator and diuretics in all the animals. Inotrope was not infused in three animals, and infused at minimal doses in six animals that were intolerant of vasodilator infusion alone. Within 50 min, our system controlled AP, CO, and PCWP to their respective targets accurately. Pulmonary artery catheterization confirmed optimization of hemodynamics (AP, from 98 ± 4 to 74 ± 11 mmHg; CO, from 2.2 ± 0.5 to 2.9 ± 0.3 L·min
^-1
·m
^-2
; PCWP, from 27.0 ± 6.6 to 13.8 ± 3.0 mmHg). In a minimally invasive setting while reducing the use of inotrope, our system succeeded in automatically optimizing the overall hemodynamics in canine models of HF. The present results pave the way for clinical application of our automated drug infusion system.