Abstract
We have developed a novel blood pump with a magnetic levitated impeller to recover cardiac function. The blood pump can increase the coronary flow by varying rotational speed of the impeller in accordance with the heartbeat. In this work, radial displacements of the rotor were measured to evaluate passive stability with improved impeller which generated stronger axial attractive force. Levitation stability of the impellers in the pump with horizontally setting was compared to that vertically setting under the condition of continuous flow and pulsatile flow in a mock flow loop with normal saline. As a result, touchdown occurred with present impeller in the condition of vertical setting and pulsatile flow, whereas touchdown did not occur with improved impeller in any condition. In the future, hemolysis test, vibration test and durability test will be carried out with improved impeller. In consideration of safely, the levitation stability of improved impeller would be improved by changing size of the permanent magnets.
