抄録
ABSTRACT: Several efforts in different aspects have been made in order to determine the causes of hemolysis inside centrifugal blood pumps. The hemolytic performance of centrifugal blood pump is thought to have a close relationship with the geometrical configuration of impeller vane. Focusing on the fact, in this study three pump model those are different in vane configuration was evaluated with in-vitro hemolysis test along with flow visualization study to characterize the correlation between flow pattern and hemolysis. To avoid measurement error in the in-vitro test, highly severe experimental condition was set up by increasing the pressure load and rotational velocity to the pump. Thus, statistically significant difference among the three types of pump model was obtained. In the visualization study, flow patterns of the same three pump models as above were evaluated to substantiate the fact occurred in the in-vitro test. By using our newly developed visualization method, it was possible to chase tracer particles for a sufficient duration. In the resultant, obvious differences in the flow patterns with the differences in vane configuration was observed. Among the three models, pump having curve type vanes that are concave to the flow direction was considered as best hemolytic performance and at the same time, lowest velocity fluctuation observed in the visualization.