NASA Tech Briefs Insider Blog

New Technologies for Heart Patients

Square leaflet mechanical heart valves allow efficient blood flow with low shear stress because there are no obstructions in the path of blood flow. This patented innovation in mechanical heart valve design is simple, cost-effective, and substantially improves existing mechanical heart valve designs. Rectangular leaflets provide a means to completely remove any central obstruction to blood flow.
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This technology offers a quick, inexpensive, and consistent method for determining the effectiveness of cardioversion in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, and offers physicians a tool to differentiate between patients who will successfully cardiovert and those who will not. Cardioversion returns AF to a normal heart rhythm through either an electric shock or drugs. This technology is rapid, complementary to existing work-ups, and uses existing equipment.
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The Technologies of the Week describe inventions offered for license through the yet2.com marketplace. Search over $2.5 billion of licensable technologies at www.yet2.com.

A new counter-flow heart pump being developed by researchers at Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is based on a double-output centrifugal model that pushes the blood in a counter direction to ensure correct flow through both sides of the heart.

“The counter-flow pump is a bi-ventricular assist device (BVAD), meaning it supports both the left and right sides of the heart simultaneously,” said lead researcher and QUT associate professor Andy Tan. “But what’s so groundbreaking is that it is the first device to combine the function of two pumps into one unit.”

Current double-heart-pump technology requires the implant of two pumps that work independently, making it too bulky. The counter-flow pump has two independent impellers to simulate two pumps to augment the operations of the left and right ventricles. This allows the blood to flow at a higher delivery pressure as required by the left chamber of the heart, and a slower pressure as required by the right chamber.

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