Abstract
Circulatory assist devices are essential medical equipment for the serious heart failure patients. In order to develop new devices, it is necessary to carry out hemocompatibility evaluation testing, such as hemolysis or antithrombogenic testing. Those testing in vitro are important evaluation method, followed by animal experiment in order to make clear the mechanical characteristics of the devices, concerning the hemocompatibility based on the shear stress generated in the device. Especially for antithrombogenic testing, the blood coagulability is critical for the thrombus formation for the improvement of the in vitro testing. We have tried to elucidate the relationship between the blood coagulability and the degree of shear stress, regarding to thrombosis using a rheometer. On the other hand, we focused on the absolute evaluation of the hemolytic testing, using microcapsule suspension as a standard test solustion. We succeeded absolute hemolytic testing of four types of commercial centrifugal blood pumps.
