Performance prediction of a percutaneous ventricular assist system - a nonlinear circuit analysis approach

A percutaneous ventricular assist system, consisting of a centrifugal blood pump, an atrial drainage cannula, and various sizes of arterial perfusion cannulae, is modeled as a nonlinear circuit, including a speed dependent voltage source and current dependent resistors. This model is used to predict the performance of the system in terms of blood flow rate through the system by specifying pump speed, mean arterial pressure and left atrial pressure. The predicted pump flow is obtained by solving the current through the circuit using an optimization routine. It is shown that the model predicted flow rates accurately with mean error less than 2%, when the predicted flows from the model are compared to the experimental data.