DEVELOPMENT OF A MECHANICAL CIRCULATORY SIMULATOR FOR THE ANALYSIS OF ARTIFICIAL HEART CONTROL METHODS.

The authors have developed a mechanical circulatory simulator which can be used for the analysis of artificial heart control methods. This simulator consists of two parts; (I) a fluid circuit loop which was designed to have similar hydrodynamic characteristics to the total cardiovascular system of dogs, and (II) a minicomputer system for data acquisition and control of the fluid system. The curent control program has two types; a needle valve control for peripheral resistance simulating the behavior of an autonomic nervous system at the aortic position, and flow control for the left pump based on 'Starling's law'. Hydrodynamics in this simulator were compared with hemodynamics in goats under various circulatory situations including a 'single artificial heart' model. The designed system exhibited satisfactory performance, especially with respect to dynamic behaviors of the vascular system.