Qualitative Hemolysis Analyses in VAD by Stress Distribution Using Computational Hemodynamics

Congestive Heart Failure is a cardiovascular disease with global incidence and high mortality. In advanced stages, when patients are already refractory to drug therapies, there are two main alternatives, the heart transplantation, or the mechanical circulatory support. Ventricular Assist Devices are blood pumps designed to circulate blood in physiological conditions. Thus, hemolysis prediction is indispensable in VAD development. In literature, there are several models based on scalar stress analysis for estimating hemolysis index. Here, a different kind of analysis based on stress distribution and critical stress is proposed. Simulations were performed in a VAD prototype and 5 turbulence models were tested. Results show the distribution of scalar stress magnitudes according to their volume distribution and an important discussion and qualitative analyses were made, despite overall scalar stress measurements which generalize the results.