Magnetically Active Cardiac Patches as an Untethered, Non‐Blood Contacting Ventricular Assist Device

Abstract

Patients suffering from heart failure often require circulatory support using ventricular assist devices (VADs). However, most existing VADs provide nonpulsatile flow, involve direct contact between the blood flow and the device's lumen and moving components, and require a driveline to connect to an external power source. These design features often lead to complications such as gastrointestinal bleeding, device thrombosis, and driveline infections. Here, a concept of magnetically active cardiac patches (MACPs) that can potentially function as non‐blood contacting, untethered pulsatile VADs inside a magnetic actuationsystem is reported. The MACPs, which are composed of permanent magnets and 3D‐printed patches, are attached to the epicardial surfaces, thus avoiding direct contact with the blood flow. They provide powerful actuation assisting native heart pumping inside a magnetic actuation system. In ex vivo experiments on a healthy pig's heart, it is shown that the ventricular ejection fractions are as high as 37% in the left ventricle and 63% in the right ventricle. Non‐blood contacting, untethered VADs can eliminate the risk of serious complications associated with existing devices, and provide an alternative solution for myocardial training and therapy for patients with heart failure.

Soft robotics for physical simulators, artificial organs and implantable assistive devices

“…Some devices aimed at restraining the heart geometry passively while adapting their properties at the different cardiac cycle phases [237]. More frequently, instead, the assistance was also active: in a recent work [238], authors reported a magnetically actuated AD mounted onto a 3D-printed patch able to improve the ejection fraction of 37% in the left ventricle and 63% in the right one. Another actuating principle was used in [239], where the authors presented a silicone-based material embedding electrothermally-responsive fibers (Dragon Skin 10 with silver-coated nylon yarn, Shieldex Trading, USA).…”

Recent Progress in Active Mechanical Metamaterials and Construction Principles

“…[51,261,262] 3) The applications in giant machinery, such as, aerospace, including smart load-bearing and anti-impact structures, [1,27,46,181,263] morphing airfoils, [264] acoustic stealth cloaks, [48,[225][226][227] elastic mechanical cloaks, [48] reconfigurable antenna, [24,180,265,266] terahertz metadevices, [267] electromagnetic stealth system. [268][269][270] 4) The applications in biomedicine include electronic skin, [258,[271][272][273][274][275] tissue engineering, [192,194,[276][277][278][279][280] vascular stents, [54,136,[281][282][283] drug delivery carriers. [136,210,284,285] From the above discussion, the rich functions and application value of AMMs have brought great convenience to human production and life.…”

“…[ 51 , 261 , 262 ] 3) The applications in giant machinery, such as, aerospace, including smart load‐bearing and anti‐impact structures, [ 1 , 27 , 46 , 181 , 263 ] morphing airfoils, [ 264 ] acoustic stealth cloaks, [ 48 , 225 , 226 , 227 ] elastic mechanical cloaks, [ 48 ] reconfigurable antenna, [ 24 , 180 , 265 , 266 ] terahertz metadevices, [ 267 ] electromagnetic stealth system. [ 268 , 269 , 270 ] 4) The applications in biomedicine include electronic skin, [ 258 , 271 , 272 , 273 , 274 , 275 ] tissue engineering, [ 192 , 194 , 276 , 277 , 278 , 279 , 280 ] vascular stents, [ 54 , 136 , 281 , 282 , 283 ] drug delivery carriers. [ 136 , 210 , 284 ,…”

Exact and Computationally Robust Solutions for Cylindrical Magnets Systems with Programmable Magnetization

“…[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ] Progresses in manufacturing are further expanding the design landscape through the possibility to code magnetization profiles in soft magnetoresponsive composites. [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ] Both current coils systems [ 9 , 10 ] and permanent magnets were adopted as field sources. Compared to coils, which permit higher‐frequency modulation and the possibility to switch off the field, permanent magnets can generate stronger fields and gradients, and their application is not restricted by wiring and cooling requirements, thus fostering their attractiveness for heat‐sensitive biomedical procedures.…”